Escape from Silence

Abandoned by her mother as she was just turning eleven, Nyxie was told to never speak again. Sent to her aunt and uncle, she learns to communicate using sign language. On a visit to the zoo, she encounters a young male orangutan who signs to her he needs help—help to escape the zoo! He wants to return to his mother in Sumatra. With the aid of her estranged grandfather, Nyxie and the red ape commences a journey of nine thousand miles battling the sea, pirates and predators.

On the day of her eleventh birthday, Nyxie's mother made her promise to never speak again. And with that, her mother disappeared from her life. Handed over to an aunt and uncle she barely knew, Nyxie reluctantly learns to get around not speaking by using American Sign Language. She never imagined that knowing sign language would get her involved in aiding a young male orangutan's escape from the zoo to search for his mother in the faraway rainforest of Sumatra. Their journey to Indonesia is an epic battle against natural elements and enemies, perhaps supernatural ones as well. Can Nyxie and the young orangutan survive the rage of sea storms, the plundering of pirates, or the hunger of predators? Will they ever discover the birthplace of all orangutans, Cloud Mountain? Or learn the real identity of those who called themselves the Paladins? Tag along with Nyxie and the young orang on their heroic journey of nine thousand miles to find his mother.

My father was a decorated bomber pilot out of World War Two. A chemist, a farmer, a furniture maker and a boatbuilder, he was a man who I thought could do anything. He died when I was thirteen. My mom packed up my sister, brother and me, left Chicago and returned to her roots in Southern California. After high school and while enrolled at UCLA, I spent every summer as an instructor for the Colorado Outward Bound School. After graduating UCLA, and by the kind efforts of Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, I ended up working in Hollywood. My entertainment career included being president of CBS Television, writing, producing and directing. I'm also a pilot, a woodworker, a welder, a writer, a car fanatic and a fierce defender of the environment and animals. This novel is an idea that has incubated inside me for thirty years. I finally wrote it at the urging of my junior high school teacher from Chicago. I often wonder if I've unconsciously tried to mirror my father.