Wesley Murphey

Author Wesley Murphey

Wesley Murphey grew up in Dexter and Pleasant Hill, Oregon, and graduated from Pleasant Hill High School in 1975. He then served four years in the U.S. Navy as a navigation specialist aboard a fast-attack nuclear submarine, USS Guardfish SSN612. After serving Uncle Sam, he returned to Lane County and lived there until 2003. He spent seven years in college, earned two degrees, a BS and an AAS. He sold his first outdoor article in 1991, and has sold many outdoor articles since then. He wrote and published his first book, Blacktail Deer Hunting Adventures, in 1994 and his second book, Conibear Beaver Trapping in Open Water, in 1996. Newer editions of both titles are now available. Blacktail Deer Hunting Adventures (Revised and Expanded) 2013 edition and now a 2018 edition that has been expanded further to 194 pages with 65 illustrations. The Conibear Beaver Trapping in Open Water book was revised in 2014 now has 110 pages, 115 illustrations (Much better photos and layout too).

Murphey moved to Central, Oregon with his family in 2003, where he now lives on their 5 beautifully wooded acres thirty miles south of Bend in La Pine, Oregon. He said, "I always loved coming up to the mountains--especially to Wickiup Reservoir--to camp, swim, fish, hunt, hike and pick mushrooms." He has a son and a daughter and one grand daughter. "My granddaughter, Brooklyn, is a huge blessing from heaven."

Murphey's love for writing began at an early age. As the son of an accomplished writer--Don Murphey, who passed away in 2007 at age 85--Murphey wrote his first short story, "Mt Zion Adventurers," in 8th grade. "The writing assignment was only supposed to be two or three pages," Murphey said, "but the story took off while I was writing it and ended up being eighteen pages." Fortunately other teachers gave him more encouragement than the one who had to grade his marathon story. Murphey says he will never forget the words his seventh grade English teacher at Pleasant Hill Junior High School, Mrs. Jan Jackson, wrote on a one page paper: "Fantastic!" He still has the short story and the fantastic paper. Murphey thanks God for teachers like Mrs. Jackson, and for Trudy Kutz, the professor in several of his college writing classes.

Murphey also gives credit to his long-time friend, Howard Rooks, the former Pleasant Hill Junior High School art teacher during Murphey's 8th grade year there. Rooks, now Howard Rooks Graphic Design in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, did the cover design for Murphey's first 8 books. Murphey said, "Howard has always been a pleasure to work with."

Murphey's first published novel, (written in the spring of 2010), "A Homeless Man's Burden," 2011, is a take off of an actual child murder that occurred in a bean field near Dexter, Oregon in 1960. The real case was never solved, but in Murphey's book the killer is found. He said, "I later picked in the field where the girl was killed, and as a teenager I worked for her father. My dad was her school bus driver and the local mail carrier. There is fact in my book, but the fiction really brings the story to life." The Midwest Book Review said, "A Homeless Man's Burden is a riveting thriller that will keep the pages turning." A Revised edition of this book came out in 2016, including new cover and author interview.

Trouble at Puma Creek, also 2011, is a historical suspense fiction account, whose idea came from a double homicide at Puma Creek in Oregon's Fall Creek Forest. Three of the main characters are Vietnam veterans, while the detective is a Korean War vet. The story takes place in 1980-81, though four chapters take place in 1974, and deals heavily in Vietnam War and post Vietnam War issues--particularly the POW/MIA problem. It gives the reader an excellent feel for the trauma experienced by many Vietnam veterans and their families. Murphey said,"This book takes the reader back to that period of time when it was not okay to talk about the Vietnam War, or to even be a Vietnam veteran, a time when hippies flourished, and the U.S. Presidency was in shambles." A new edition of this book came out in 2016.

In 2013 Murphey came out with two Volumes of Fish, Hunt and Trap a Little: True Tales and Tactics. These books are loaded with fun and easy reading true outdoor adventure stories by Wesley Murphey and his deceased father Don Murphey. Some of the stories in these books have been published previously in various outdoor periodicals.

Murphey's website: http://lostcreekbooks.com

Read more about Murphey's books here.