THEFT and FIRE SEASON: BK Loren and Philip Connors Taking the West by Storm
Wolves are benevolent. Wolves are demons. Little Red Riding Hood should have never trusted the big bad one, and Liam Neeson and the crew of The Grey really did eat one—I think. Well, it could have been a Hollywood publicity stunt. Or maybe the film’s director just wanted the actors to take Alaska’s wilderness, and wildlife, seriously. We are what we eat. W e are also what we watch, and what we read. The wolves in BK Loren ’ s debut novel THEFT are nothing like the wolves in The Grey . Actually, no real wolf pack much resembles the wolves in The Grey . Hollywood is good at creating heroes and villains, just like the federal government when it began subsidizing wolf extermination on federal lands in 1915. (Read “Wolves and the Balance of Nature ” Smithsonian). Unlike the government, BK doesn’t use the novel to further an agenda, political or otherwise. THEFT tells a story without burdening the reader, though we’re left a bit haunted (in a good way). Life is no