This is Richard's latest novel, just released in fall 2011. It's the seventh adventure of the MacGregor Family series published by Pelican. In this novel, the family heads to the warm waters of Mexico and Central America where two of the MacGregor kids are kidnapped and the family must come to the rescue. This novel is sure to please teens with an appetite for travel, history, science, and learning about new cultures. A must read from one of Oklahoma's most talented writers, Professor Richard Trout.
Young Adult Author
Introduction
Richard Trout firmly believes that ordinary people can do extraordinary things! Richard Trout is a biologist, college professor, and author of young adult novels. He comes from a family rich in historical heritage both in Texas and Oklahoma. His grandmother, Annie Miller was born in Granbury, Texas and crossed the Red River as a little girl in a covered wagon.She married into a Chicakasaw family, the Trouts, in Indian Territory.It was Annie Miller’s great grandfather who fought in the Texas Revolution and was honored a few years ago by the Texas Legislature. Professor Trout’s family still has the original Republic of Texas land deed to their ranch in Milam County, Republic of Texas.
As a seventh grade student in Lubbock, Texas, Richard entered an essay contest, writing about his Texas heritage for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. He won a medal for his region and this began his writing career. The son of a minister, Dr. Virgil R. Trout, Richard counts his growing up years in Levelland, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lubbock, Texas, and Duncan, Oklahoma as the formative time of his life. But he spent many summers at his grandparents farm in the Arbuckle Mountains of Southern Oklahoma, near the tiny town of Pooleville where he learned to noodle for catfish in nearby streams and harvest wild honey from “live” beehives in trees near an alfalfa pasture. His grandfather, Harrison Cleveland Trout, taught him how to safely handle rifles for hunting and to be a good fisherman.
Background
Professor Trout went to college at Oklahoma Christian University and Oklahoma State University.As a Professor of Biology, Richard was the 2007 recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been a SCUBA diver since receiving his certification in 1970 and has a goal of diving in every ocean on the planet! His favorite book is Out of Africa by Isak Dineson and he enjoys reading Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Jack Higgins, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.However, he also feels that Charles Dickens is the best.
Books Richard is the author of the widely acclaimed series, The MacGregor Family Adventures, for young adults ranging from fifth through eleventh grade.Accelerated Readers & Scholastic Reading Counts has tests for all of them.Many of Richard Trout’s fans follow his novels from grade school all the way through college.The novels are unique in that each has an historical prologue which sets the stage for action and intrigue. Each new exciting location leads to a new adventure to save the planet from death and destruction. The MacGregor Family Adventure Series was originally planned for just three novels.However, since families have found them fun, exciting, and suspenseful, and in demand, Richard Trout has agreed to take the series to 12 or 15 adventures.Novel #7, Eclipse of the Jaguar, is an adventure in Mayan country in Central America, primarily in Belize, and will be out in 2010. Readers are encouraged to start a reading club. If you do, let Richard Trout know and he may do something special for your club! Website & Contact Information Website: RichardTrout.com Email: Richard@RichardTrout.com Brochure:Soon to Come Available for Speaking: Yes
Richard Trout Oklahoma City, OK
"When I write, I view the story in my head as a movie and it flows smoothly from one event to the next."
OCAI: We thought we'd start the school year off with a BANG, so we'd like to introduce you to one of the most adventurous men you'll ever meet--Richard Trout. Richard is an Associate Professor of Biology at Oklahoma Christian University and lives in OKC with his beautiful wife, a fourth-grade teacher at Will Rogers Elementary in the Putnam City District. He is the author of the MacGregor Family Adventure Series which is a series of young adult action-adventure novels, and lucky for his fans, there's more on the way! Richard, can you tell us about some of the interesting and unusual places your books and research has led you? What have you gotten to see or do there?
Richard: Native Masai and Kukuyu from Kenya are some of the kindest and sweetest people I have ever met. Their rich heritage is amazing and they are full of pride and courage. I enjoyed the people of the Caribbean, the mix of cultures from the last 300 years to the modern day. I am looking forward to experiencing this in Rwanda in the next two years. One of my closest friends is Dr. Louise Wolmarans, a native South African who owns a wild game farm on the border with Zimbabwe. My wife, Mavis, and I will be traveling there to write another YA adventure. Louise and her family live in New Zealand and will host us for our New Zealand/Australian adventure for two more novels. My favorite city in the world isLondon, home of the world's attic, The British Museum. Extensive research there enabled me to write two novels. My favorite diving spot is the U.S. Virgin Islands. Pristine unpolluted waters with beautiful reefs and marine life. OCAI: How do you decide where your next book will take place? And which do you enjoy most--the research or the actual writing? Richard:It's hard to decide which book to write next. I have a list of places where adventures will take place. I try to use a global logic so the MacGregor family will hop from place to place without backtracking. But sometimes it changes because I can't make it to the next location in time to write the novel. I also find news articles which tip me off to a particular environmental problem so I change the location of the next book. I was reading an Australian newspaper online and picked up on a debate about gold mine pollution in Papua New Guinea. I researched it and discovered it to be timely and important and inserted Papua New Guinea as the next novel. Since I am a biologist and a SCUBA diver, I already new the basics of diving in the South Pacific pearl diving industry and simply had to invent the story-line. That novel becameDevil's Breath Volcanoand now outsells all the others! It was great fun to incorporate 40 years of diving into the novel as I had in book one,Cayman Gold, including my experience with sharks. OCAI: Since you travel all over the world, we've got to ask--have you ever eaten anything totally, um, weird?
Richard:Eating weird food is not my specialty. Since I have to be involved in an adventure on land or sea, I try to eat a pretty bland diet. Once we were caught in a terrible storm at sea in a 60 foot boat and for nearly four hours everyone was tied to the side rails of the deck losing their lunch. We were dressed in our diving wet suits to stay warm while being pounded by the cold salty sea. We took turns driving the boat and had a special bucket next to us for convenience. Then we would dump the bucket for the next guy to drive and make his/her deposit and go back and using our utility belts buckle back up to the rail. It was a rough day and the when we finally anchored, the 68 degree water of the Alaskan current felt good and calmed us all down despite that we were greeted by a three sizable Blue Sharks. It's a name not a color. We really didn't care because at one time we were so sick we were afraid we weren't going to die! Never been sea sick before or since, thank goodness. So to answer your question, I try not to be too brave even though I have eaten fried insects and worm larvae. I couldn't bite into the spiders or scorpions. I know what's inside them.
OCAI:Can you tell us when your next MacGregor Family Adventure Series book will be released and what type of exciting setting and action can your readers expect?
Richard: January, 2011, is the release date for novel number 7 in the series,Eclipse of the Jaguar. The adventure for this novel occurred many years ago when my wife and I traveled the Mayan region of the Yucatan peninsula when the average person could crawl around the Mayan temples and watch the archaeologists clean the beautiful murals inside the temples. Now that is not permitted and visitors have to stay on a designated path and can't climb down inside the ruins. We also spent two weeks in Mexico City soaking in the knowledge from the Museo de Anthropologia. When I was in London, I found corroborating research at the British Museum. So this novel is the culmination of many years of experiences rather than one trip to an exotic local. I was also able to incorporate diving again as I have in two other novels. Kids love the ocean and all its mysteries. The story involves the search for the "lost treasure of the Mayan kings," something I discovered in my extensive research of the writings of archaeologists who have studied the Mayans for the last 200 years. It was fun and difficult learning to read the Mayan hieroglyphs just enough to create a mystery for the novel. I was able to do the same for my Egyptian adventure, Falcon of Abydos. OCAI: We've focused mainly on your research and settings, but with the raving reviews your books are receiving, such as "well-crafted adventure with meticulous attention to accuracy in detail" and "a tale for young people the way it should be written", you're obviously spending much time in not only writing and research but also perfecting your craft. Can you share with us how you go about the writing and editorial process to garner such great reviews and faithful fans all over the world? Richard: I love the writing process as much as the research. I learned a basic formula from the late Jack Bickham of the University of Oklahoma in 1987 and it has served me well. Jack taught creative writing in the journalism department and was famous for The Apple Dumpling Gang and 60 other novels. When I write I view the story in my head as a movie and it flows smoothly from one event to the next. I use the "discovery method" which reveals new twists and turns and new characters as events evolve. When I begin a novel, I know the ending so it is a matter of piecing it all together in between. I don't use outlines because it would conflict with the "20 chapter formula." After months of research and travel, I sit down and write the rough draft in about six weeks totaling about 60,000 words. My contracts usually have a length requirement which sometimes causes me to omit something from the novel. After I do the first draft, I go through a grammar and syntax second draft looking for errors. My third draft is called the "counting the bullets" draft looking for obvious errors of the 18 year old Chris MacGregor firing a six shot pistol at an Alaskan grizzly seven times! It happens when the excitement is intense and moving. Also I have to be consistent in clothing that is worn in scene after scene, time zones, time of day. When I wroteCzar of Alaska, I had to check temperatures in November across Alaska and length of daylight since the major characters were in three different aircraft moving from cold to warm climates and back. So on the fourth draft of that novel, all I did was check the time of day and location in Alaska to be it was correct. My fifth edit is done by Dr. Neal Coates of Abilene Christian University. Neal has a J.D. and a Ph.D. and is a political scientist with writing and editing skills. I learned years ago that successful novelists always use an independent editor and Neal is that for me. I ask him to read it and tear it apart. Then on my sixth draft I make suggested corrections and send it to Nina Kooij, Senior Editor for Pelican Publishing. I don't touch it again after that. However, sometimes I get to debate over any changes that Pelican wants to do. I once had an editor from Pennsylvania who didn't get the Texas vernacular that the MacGregor family uses and we had to work together to make the edit work. The novels are never perfect but pretty close. I don't like to read the finished book because I see things I want to change and that can't be done. I use the philosophy of George Lucas. "When it's over, it's over!" OCAI: Thanks for sharing with us today, Richard. We really appreciate you and your wonderful series and look forward to more exciting adventures! We'd like to let viewers know that Richard is available for author visits not only in Oklahoma but all over the U.S. So be sure to click on his biography page (above) for more details and contact information! Thanks, Richard!
"Professor Richard Trout, rich with a heritage from the Republic of Texas, the Chickasaw Nation, and a life of travel and adventure will hold the attention of kids grades 5-8 for over one hour.Teachers are amazed at the way their students intently listen to Professor Trout and view the pics of his wonderful travels as he shows and explains how he researches and writes novels.From the warm Caribbean Sea to East Africa to Egypt to the Arctic Circle of Alaska to deep within Mayan rainforests, Professor Trout's adventure will match any fantasy novel full of witches and dragons.Professor Trout's motto is to write literarture that will "embolden spirits, nourish dreams, and reinforce resolve."Professor Trout and his Chris MacGregor Adventure novels can do that for your kids in just over an hour.He will also conduct a serious writing workshop for kids who want tips on how to write action scenes. School Library Journal and numerous other reviewers, teachers, and media specialists have praised professor Trout for his action sequences and his "new super hero, Chris MacGregor."
"Professor Trout signs books for fans in Elk City. He loves visiting small towns as well as the big city schools!"
