We sat in silence for a long time simply listening to the sounds around us in the early evening. We watched the death of the day, and the birth of the night that now consumed the sky with its darkness. Countless stars peered down upon us from places unknown and hung like ice crystals from the top of the cave. The Old Man said that he was told they were the campfires of our ancestors burning always to remind us deep in the night that they are still with us and still guide us. As I sat with my back to the tree and the fire to my front, I began to grow tired. We bid farewell to the night and crawled into our shelter. Nesting down into the thick mound of dry leaves that served as my bed, I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep to the sound of my own heart.
The above is a paragraph taken from Lorcan Colborn’s childhood, described in Lethal Tracker. Though his origins are well explained in the book, as well as his experiences through severe trials across decades of his life, who is Lorcan inside? Where does he come from? As we all are, Lorcan is a product of his genetics and thus the history of his people. One major aspect any reader of Lethal Tracker will denote of Lorcan’s life is that he is a fighter by nature. It is as though he was born to fight. Those who weave the threads of life seem to have woven a path where Lorcan has never had a choice not to fight. If he didn’t fight it would be his end, and he understands this. He comes from a line of fighters and attitudes. His paternal great-grandfather was a wise guy. 5’ 9” in height, he was sinewy but as strong as a bull. He was well known for not taking any crap from anyone, nor did he tolerate people spinning lies before him. There are many stories of him hauling off and punching someone who looked at him the wrong way. But he also had a great sense of humor and loved animals, kids, and the land. He fought in the trench wars of World War 1 for America. Though at that time he was new to the country. He was Swiss/Helvetii-Teuton/German-Norwegan. After the war, he became a farmer and worked the land for the rest of his life. Lorcan’s paternal grandfather took after his father. He was also known to be a wise guy and someone that didn’t suffer bullies, idiots, liars, or cheats. Standing 6’ he was also sinewy and strong as an ox. In boot camp, during World War 2 his bunk was on the second floor of the barracks. There was a guy twice his size who didn’t like Lorcan’s grandfather. One day he attacked him in the barracks. In a short time, the bully was literally beaten and thrown out the second-story window by Lorcan’s grandfather! Those were different times and so he wasn’t reprimanded or court marshaled. After graduating from boot camp he was sent to fight the war in Germany. Wounded by shrapnel he was honorably discharged with a purple heart after a very long recovery. After healing from the war he farmed a bit like his father, but most of his career was in construction. And like his father, he didn’t take crap from anyone, but also loved kids, animals, and working the land. He always had extensive gardens that occupied him when he wasn’t working. Lorcan’s father too on that fighter mentality as well. When he was in his youth he was known to walk the streets carrying his boxing gloves around his neck. he would box anyone who wanted to. After a while, none of his friend's mothers would let their sons out to box when he came round, because they all had their noses broken too many times. He was in the military during Vietnam. There was an incident just before Lorcan was born where his father beat down a corrupt guy from the mob in his front yard who was trying to date his sister. Though Lorcan’s father maintains that fighter instinct and internal attitude his entire life, he is known to be able to brush things off far easier than his father and grandfather. He also has a great love for kids, animals, and wide open country. Having a strong documented family tree, Lorcan can easily trace his ancestry back through the Helvetii of the Swiss Alps, the Teutons of ancient northern Germania, and the Norwegians back to the Iron Age and the age of Vikings, on both sides of his family. Throughout Lethal Tracker the reader can easily see just how much of that fight and attitude Lorcan possesses. Nevertheless, Lorcan is a far more dynamic individual than just fight and attitude! More on Lorcan's history to come.
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I came up with the main character's name in an odd way. Back in early winter I was drifting off to sleep, but in that space where you are not yet sleeping, and not fully conscious either. It was in that space that I heard a voice clear as day. It sounded like someone was either standing beside the bed, or somewhere just above me. The voice said one word in a heavy Irish accent, Lorcan. I jolted awake and literally looked around the room expecting to see someone there, but therw was nothing. I shook it off and went to sleep.
A few days later I was writing the book and came to the point where I needed to choose the main character's name. Immediately I felt it should be Lorcan. Then the event of that night came back to me when I first heard the name. Before that, I never heard the name anywhere. I looked it up and found it was an Irish name meaning “violent”. So I chose a Norwegian last name that means “burning coals”. And that was how I came up with the name. Half a year later I still have no idea where that name came from, and what the deal was with that Irish-accented voice in the night. But there you have it. Lorcan Colborn... Let me open this blog by stating I never thought of myself as an author. Odd for someone who has a book over 800 pages published, I know. Nevertheless, facts be stated, an author was never something I ever wanted to be, nor saw myself becoming.
My life has been so active, so busy, and filled with adventure that I never had time to sit down to type much. I didn’t even learn to type in school back in the 80s. Still today I type using two fingers, though I must say at a decent pace. I ran two wilderness living and skills schools for a decade, and through those websites learned how to type by creating articles for internal blogs. I learned, tediously and painfully, how to manage the websites on my own. Another skill I never foresaw myself doing in life. My whole life I was always in impeccable health and physical condition. It was always one of my top priorities to take exceptional care of my body through exercise, physical training, top-quality foods, and supplements as well as ongoing work on my mindset. As it usually does, life seems to run on its own plans though. I will say my life has not been remotely easy, nor kind on my system. Presumably, due to incredible damage over the years of a very challenging lifestyle, I developed ME/CFS, among other chronic conditions. I observed internally as the conditions slowly intensified since 2008 and methodically removed my ability physical function as I used to. Once the issues reached enough severity to keep me down for months of the year, I decided to start writing. It is true that through the old blogs that are no longer in existence, I typed out over 1,000 articles in about a 12-year period. But I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing books. The process started mostly on my laptop while being bedridden for almost 6 months last year. Lethal Tracker was finally released this month of July in the year 2022. 816 pages and 42 chapters later, I managed to get it out to the world. To my surprise friends and family around the world have begun buying it. But even more of a surprise is the fact that my entire healthcare team, spanning two countries, has bought the book. Lethal Tracker is a very heavy read. Though even in the midst of the violence and brutality of Lorcan’s life, there is a deeply woven sense of spirituality about him as well. Lorcan has an ongoing struggle with not only life as it is, but also with who he is, the exceptional skillsets and talents he has most frowned upon by “civilized” society, and his core self which seems to be of a dual nature. I will not get more into Lorcan at this time. I will save that for the next blog entry. I will leave off by stating that Lethal Tracker deeply follows tracks of my own life as Lorcan Colborn claws, fights, bleeds, and traverses the many pages of the book. |
AuthorWhite Wolf Von Atzingen has traveled the western hemisphere extensively. He is a Northman, teacher, author, artist, nature lover, and martial artist living in the remote mountains of Vermont. Archives
January 2023
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