Growing up around game wardens

I grew up in the woods of upstate South Carolina, hunting and fishing every chance I got. Being around wildlife officers was normal. A lot of them were my dad’s friends, and I learned early what the job asks of the men who carry that badge.

A wildlife officer can work miles of backcountry where help is a long way off. Many of the people he meets out there are carrying a rifle, because they’re hunting. Most of them are good people having a good day. The job is knowing the difference before it matters.

That’s the ground Wade Holloway is built on. He works the North Carolina side of the Blue Ridge, in a county I made up, but the work is the work I watched growing up: read the scene before you walk into it, and don’t believe a thing until you’ve checked it.

I also come from a family of veterans, and Wade is a former Force Recon Marine for a reason. The men and women who served deserve every bit of recognition we can give them. If a reader who wore the uniform sees a little of himself in Wade, and feels respected and not used, then I’ve done my job.