This Side of a Wilderness by Daniel J Rice

This Side of a Wilderness

by Daniel J Rice

"He was alone in the wilderness, a wilderness that seemed deep and forever, but was surrounded by a world filled with people."

Eli Sylvan is on a quest to rediscover the wilderness of his youth. He spends his weekends camping and fishing in the wild mountains of Wyoming, and then on Mondays he returns to the daily grind of the professional workforce. Feeling alienated from his friends and coworkers, Eli spends his evenings painting scenic landscapes, but this only intensifies his longing to be completely immersed in nature. Then he meets Lamara, a young woman who has a sophisticated flair and a deep affinity for the outdoors. Together they develop a plan to resign from their careers in Wyoming and move into an isolated northern Minnesota forest. But the challenge of escaping the comforts of society is greater than either anticipated, and they must prepare themselves for the possibility of failure.


BIOGRAPHY

Daniel J. Rice was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1979. In 2011 he resigned from his position as a Hydrographer for the U.S. Geological Survey in Wyoming, to dedicate time to writing. While spending four months living alone in a tent, isolated in a northern Minnesota forest, he wrote the novel, This Side of a Wilderness, and the journal, The Unpeopled Season. Currently he owns and operates an Ice Cream shop - Big River Scoop - in Bemidji, MN, with his wife Mayana, and daughter Amelie. He is an avid Fly Fisherman, Outdoorsman, and Hockey Player, and all these come through in his writing.

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Publisher: Riverfeet Press

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If You Leave This Farm by Amanda Farmer

If You Leave This Farm

by Amanda Farmer

As a teenage Mennonite girl, Amanda lives with her close-knit family in south central Pennsylvania. Life revolves around hard work, faith, and commitment to the family. She doesn’t question the daily routine; it’s the only life she’s known. Her father talks about buying a farm out west with a lot of land in one block. Not only will the family farm there together, but the parents hope to begin a new Mennonite community. To a fifteen-year-old girl, this move begins as an exciting adventure.

In If You Leave this Farm, Amanda shares the story of her family’s relocation to Minnesota and the subsequent challenges they face as farmers, a family, and Mennonites. She tells how the first crop year was a huge failure and her father alone makes the decision to expand the new dairy in an attempt to recoup the losses. This memoir chronicles the years of struggle as Amanda and her younger brother Joseph seek to escape their father’s suffocating and controlling behavior.

Intermingled with the struggle on the farm is the effort to become an accepted member of the Minnesota Mennonite community. The change in Amanda’s father’s behavior and attitude during the first years in Minnesota alienates him and his family from others of the same faith. She shares a mix of emotions as she wrestles with the shame of her family’s standing with the Mennonites and the crushing weight of constant submission to her father’s misguided use of his God-given authority.

BIOGRAPHY

Amanda Farmer grew up on the farm and worked there with her family until the age of twenty-nine. She earned a master's degree in nurse anesthesia. Farmer now lives with her husband on a hobby farm in southeastern Minnesota. They have one grown daughter.

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Publisher: Archway Publishing

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Amazon and Barnes & Noble