Sneed's Fiction

Even though I am better known for my nonfiction, when I first set out to be a writer I assumed I would be a novelist Over the years, I wrote a number of novels, but never put the time and dedication into them that I devoted to my nonfiction. Starting in about the year 2000, I decided to refocus my efforts on fiction.

I owe the success of my first novel to my Border collie Mattie. In 1999, my roommate of the time spotted Mattie's picture under the "Pet of the Week" column of our local newspaper. I had been thinking of getting a dog and decided to go down to the local Humane Society to take a look at her. It took me about five seconds to decide to take her, but I knew nothing about Border collies. Mattie educated me quickly. She taught me that Border collies are working dogs that need a lot of exercise. She also taught me that Border Collies are some of the smartest animals in the Universe!

To exercise Mattie and keep her from getting bored, I began throwing a Frisbee for her. A few months later, I entered her in a local Frisbee-catching contest. We didn't do very well, but that was my fault for throwing the disc poorly. Competing in the contest and watching the close  relationships between other dog owners and their dogs gave me an idea. "What If' I asked myself, gave me an idea. "What If' I asked myself, "I came up with a story about a boy and his Frisbee-catching dog?" I decided to also work themes of bullying moving to new places, and friendship into the book. The result was my first novel Dog Sense.

From the response of enthusiastic readers, what they like about it Is the close relationship between the main character. Guy, and his dog Streak. They also like the humor in the book. I felt very gratified that the book won the Henry Bergh Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and also North Dakota's readers' choice award, the Flicker Tale Award. By the way, I do not throw the Frisbee for Mattie anymore. Frisbee-catching leads to many injuries for dogs, some of them quite serious. Instead, I throw Mattie tennis balls with a wonderful device called a "Chuck-It."

Dog Sense

Reading level: Ages 9-12 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Peachtree (August 30, 2005)
ISBN: 156145351X

Paperback ISBN-10: 1561454605
ISBN-13: 978-1561454600

While I worked on finding a  publisher for Dog Sense, I got another idea for a novel this time, from a nonfiction book I had written called Birds of Prey. While researching this book, I had met a fascinating woman named Kate Davis. Kate runs a program called Raptors of the Rockies   (http://www.raptorsoftherockies.org) that is dedicated to caring for injured birds of prey and using these animals to educate the public about raptors. Kate invited me out to her "raptor ranch" and introduced me first-hand to these remarkable birds. Even before finishing my nonfiction book. I vowed to work these birds into a novel.

FLASH POINT

About this same time, Montana was having one of its worst fire seasons ever. All around the state, intense blazes were burning out of control. As a biologist, I have always been interested in fire. Most ecosystems need fire to stay healthy and yet fire also has the power to destroy homes, timber, and other things that people value. So I decided to write about birds of prey against the backdrop of fire conflicts in the tiny, fictional logging town of Heartwood, Montana. Specifically, I decided to write about Luther, a boy who has drifted away from the mainstream football and social scene of his high school, and has instead started working for a local veterinarian who works rehabilitating raptors. Anyone who has met Kate Davis will recognize that I modeled the veterinarian closely after her.

Flash Point

is fast-paced and should engage anyone interested in animals, fire, and peer pressure. I have been pleased by its reception. The Montana community of Ronan selected it as its "Community Reads" book and used it to talk about forest management and fire issues. The book also won the Green Earth Book Award for environmental literature and was named a Henry Bergh Honor Book.

Hardcover: 214 pages

Publisher: Peachtree Publishers (August 3, 2006)
ISBN: 1561453854

DOUBLE EAGLE

Double Eagle took my fiction into an entirely new direction. Not only is it my first mystery, it has very little to do with animals. The idea came to me when I began collecting State Quarters with my four year-old son. I had

collected coins as a kid and looking for quarters from different states got me again learning about all kinds of coins. One day, I was flipping through a coin book and saw that the Confederate States of America had minted four silver half dollars with their own Confederate States logo on them. Today, these coins are extremely valuable and I thought "What if the CSA had also minted some twenty dollar gold pieces, or 'double eagles', with their own logo? And what if these gold coins had been lost during the Civil War? Oh, and what if a couple of boys find one of these lost coins? Oh, oh, oh, and what if a professional treasure hunter is also looking for these missing Confederate coins

I immediately came up with a setting for the book a place I had spent a summer with my father when I was thirteen years old. That place was Dauphin Island/ Alabama.

When I was a teenager, my father had taught college classes at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, a converted Air Force radar base. I made a wonderful friend while I was down there that summer, and he showed me how to sneak into Fort Gaines, a Civil War fort next door to the marine lab. The fort, I decided, would be the perfect place for the boys to discover one of the lost Confederate double eagles

As I began writing the book, however, it became obvious to me that I would need to return to Dauphin Island to research the book. So in November 2007, I took my family back to Alabama. Dauphin Island Sea Lab graciously rented us a house for a month and we had a fabulous time exploring the island, Fort Gaines, and nearby Mobile. It was especially important to me to keep as many details of the Civil War as accurate as possible. I did have to change a few minor things, but learned incredible facts by talking to the historians at Fort Gaines. This research made the story more authentic, but more fun as I kept getting ideas for ratcheting up the mystery. up the mystery.

DOUBLE EAGLE

By Sneed Collard, Reading level: Ages 9-12, Hardcover: 256 pages, Publisher: Peachtree Publishers (April 1, 2009)

ISBN-10: 156145480X

ISBN-13: 978-1561454808 

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus ...While visiting his father on a barrier island near Mobile, Ala., 13-year-old Mike Gilbert finds a friend, a gold coin, lost treasure and more excitement than he bargained for. This suspenseful adventure opens with an introductory section describing the last run of the Skink, a paddle-wheel steamer escaping New Orleans in 1862. More than 100 years later, in June 1973, a salvage boat searches for the wreck just offshore, while Mike and Kyle explore a crumbling Civil War fort where they find a gold coin that might have been part of the load the Skink carried. Not surprisingly, the boys attract the attention of other treasure seekers, some of them armed. Although the setup requires some historical background and coin-collecting details, Mike's first-person narration moves along quickly, the action spiraling to a climactic confrontation just before a devastating hurricane. A final chapter a news story dated November 2009 allows readers to imagine a highly satisfactory ending. Reluctant readers carried along by the plot will encounter some interesting history along the way. (Thriller. 10-14)

 Hope you enjoy this novel. I continue to work on my fiction, so look out for other Sneed Collard novels soon!