Alone on the Shield
Kirk Landers
Chicago Review Press
c. 2017
Adventure Romance
E-Book $12.99
Print $15.99
Buy the book
About the Book:
I hope you get
drafted, I hope you go to Vietnam, I hope you get shot, and I hope you die
there. Those words, spoken in the anger of youth, marked the end of
the torrid 1960s college romance of Annette DuBose and Gabe Pender. She would
marry a fellow antiwar activist and end up immigrating to Canada. He would
fight in Vietnam and come home to build an American dream kind of life—a great
career, a trophy wife, and a life of wealth and privilege. Forty years later,
they have reconnected and discovered a shared passion: solo canoeing in
Ontario’s raw Quetico wilderness. They decide to meet again to get caught up on
old times, but not in a restaurant or coffee shop—they agree to meet on an
island deep in the Quetico wilds. Though they try to control their expectations
for the rendezvous, they both approach the island with a growing realization of
the emotional void in their lives and wonder how different everything might
have been if they had spent their lives together. They must overcome challenges
just to reach the island, then encounter the greatest challenges of all—each
other, and a weather event for the ages. Alone on the Shield is a story about the Vietnam war and the
things that connect us. It is the story of aging Baby Boomers, of the rare
kinds of people who paddle alone into the wilderness, and of the kind of
adventure that comes only to the bold and the brave.
My Review:
One thing hearing an author speak is that when you later a
book you often hear it in the author’s voice. Since I’d heard the author read
portions of the book, the voice added an extra dimension to the experience of
reading.
Alone on the Shield
is a bit of a misnomer, as the “alone” part only lasts a few days, maybe hours
at a time in reality, for either of the heroes of the story. The book is part
man against nature and a lot of man against himself. It’s an adventure of the
wildest sort about reclaiming a part of who you are and realizing you really do
have a chance to do life over, and all the mistakes you made happened for the
right reasons.
Gabe Pender is everyone’s anti-hero, fed up with the corporate
system and everyone else’s understanding of success, while Annette DuBoise is a
woman who achieved success despite a bucketload of ice chips she enjoys wearing
on her shoulders as an outfitter in a man’s world of adventure tripping in one
of the wildest places in North America. Quetico, the Boundary Waters, fall.
Both of them seek the thrill of pitting themselves against nature from the opposite
sides of the border. They’re former lovers who chose vastly different paths in
life, and are reconnecting forty years later maybe for old times’ sake, maybe
more.
Pender left his high-tower publishing world with a whimper
and a bang, and anger management seems to only fuel his long-held rage leftover
from helplessness during the turbulence of the seventies and Vietnam. He
decides to take on the wilderness and his past as a step toward a hazy no-cares
retirement. Annette took on Canada with both arms and made a life for herself
and her daughters after realizing she didn’t want to support a philandering
husband. When Gabe connects with her after decades of wondering what might have
been, they agree to rendezvous in the Canadian Shield.
The setting is lush; the journey is filled with high-stakes
adventure, adventurers, high-jinx, and treachery both man-made and natural. I’m
not a hundred percent crazy about the end, but you’ll have to judge for
yourself. Those who love outdoor adventure and particularly the Boundary Waters
will love Alone on the Shield. The
story is not for the faint of heart or soul and uses colorful language.
About the Author:
Kirk Landers launched his professional writing career in the
U.S. Army, writing profiles of his fellow Basic Trainees for the post newspaper
in return for getting out of KP and guard duty. After military service, he
worked for a suburban shopper, then became a staff writer and editor for an RV
magazine. Over the next decade, he was the chief editor for two special
interest magazines and a staff writer for Time-Life Books.
In the mid-Eighties, he entered the trade magazine world as a chief editor, first with a title in the food industry, then in the construction industry. His magazines won dozens of awards for journalistic excellence over the next 20 years.
In 2001, Landers and three other entrepreneurs purchased two failed trade magazines and spent the next six years building them into valuable properties. Landers and his partners sold their company in 2007. After he completed his obligations to the acquiring company in 2008, Landers became a full time freelance, writing for a variety of construction magazines and learning the craft of writing long fiction.
In the 1990s, he co-authored A Lifetime of Riches, a commissioned biography of self-help writer Napoleon Hill. He self-published his first novel, a mystery, under a pen name in 2012. It won several awards, and he followed with two more in the series. Since 2014, he has focused on writing and placing Alone on the Shield, the story of two Vietnam era lovers who broke up over the war meeting on a wilderness island forty years later.
Landers is married, has three children and seven grandchildren. His military service included an 18-month stint in Vietnam. He has a BA from Drake University. He is an avid wilderness paddler, a poor but enthusiastic fisherman, and a dedicated workout maven. He lives in the suburbs of Chicago.
He first paddled in Quetico Park in the early 1990s and has returned almost every summer since then, usually paddling in tandem with his wife, occasionally alone.
In the mid-Eighties, he entered the trade magazine world as a chief editor, first with a title in the food industry, then in the construction industry. His magazines won dozens of awards for journalistic excellence over the next 20 years.
In 2001, Landers and three other entrepreneurs purchased two failed trade magazines and spent the next six years building them into valuable properties. Landers and his partners sold their company in 2007. After he completed his obligations to the acquiring company in 2008, Landers became a full time freelance, writing for a variety of construction magazines and learning the craft of writing long fiction.
In the 1990s, he co-authored A Lifetime of Riches, a commissioned biography of self-help writer Napoleon Hill. He self-published his first novel, a mystery, under a pen name in 2012. It won several awards, and he followed with two more in the series. Since 2014, he has focused on writing and placing Alone on the Shield, the story of two Vietnam era lovers who broke up over the war meeting on a wilderness island forty years later.
Landers is married, has three children and seven grandchildren. His military service included an 18-month stint in Vietnam. He has a BA from Drake University. He is an avid wilderness paddler, a poor but enthusiastic fisherman, and a dedicated workout maven. He lives in the suburbs of Chicago.
He first paddled in Quetico Park in the early 1990s and has returned almost every summer since then, usually paddling in tandem with his wife, occasionally alone.
