Twenty-five years ago I lived in a suburban neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado. Late one winter afternoon I glanced out the dining room window and saw a large buck mule deer resting under a crabapple tree in my fenced backyard. He looked me dead in the eye, plucked a wrinkled apple from the ground with his front teeth, and calmly began to chew. I called my two young children over, pointed at the deer and said, “He’s as wild as the wind and will probably be gone by morning.”

But the buck was in no hurry to return to his mountain home. He slept in my backyard every night until winter’s end. When I opened the front door in the morning to take my children to school, he’d often be standing there dining on our shrubs. He would politely step aside so we could get past him, then resume eating his breakfast.

“Urban wildlife,” I told my kids. “Critters sometimes leave their natural habitat, drift into town and stay for a while. I read in the paper that the police had to remove a black bear from a tree near the university campus recently. And a mountain lion was sighted not far from here.”

One day I approached my next door neighbor and said, “Guess what? I’ve got a buck living in my backyard. He’s been out there for weeks and weeks. He’s adopted us.”

My neighbor said, “That’s interesting. I’ve got a pair of adult raccoons living in my attic. I was going to call animal control and have them removed, but then they had babies. Now I don’t know what to do. I hate to toss a young family like that out into the cold.”

I chuckled and said, “Well, it’s fortunate for you that my two-hundred-pound mule deer decided to live in our backyard instead of in your attic!”

As soon as I uttered those words, the adventure story I later titled “The Elk in the Attic” began to take shape in my imagination. When I retired and moved with my wife Leslie to Prescott, Arizona in June 1999, I sat down to write a novel of suspense and political intrigue called “Club Red.” Sometime in 2000, I realized the novel was going to take several years to complete, so I decided to pause and write something shorter. I wanted to try sending out query letters and dealing with pitiless rejection notices. I substituted a bull elk for the buck mule deer and wrote the story that had been rattling around in my head for over twenty years. With help from a relative, I quickly sold the book to a publisher in Golden, Colorado. Somewhere there is a photo of me holding the advance check and grinning over my “instant success.” I had visions of a national book tour, a film adaptation of the story by Walt Disney Studios, and a guest appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

But shortly before my book was scheduled to hit the printing presses, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center took place. Not long after that, my publisher contacted me and said the book market had tanked and he had no idea when he might get around to printing “The Elk in the Attic.” Your book, he said, is on “indefinite hold.”

Eventually I reclaimed the manuscript, along with all my legal rights, and figured I’d just find another publisher. But by then I was up to my furrowed brow in “Club Red” and never really tried to sell “The Elk in the Attic” again. The manuscript languished on a shelf above my computer.

One day in 2007, my wife said, “You should ask your friend Elisabeth Ruffner, who is a member of the Elks Opera House Foundation and is helping to raise money to renovate the old Elks Opera House downtown, if she thinks it would be helpful if you donated ‘The Elk in the Attic’ to raise money for the renovation.”

The Elks Opera House in Prescott is the last publicly-owned structure of its kind in the country. It is a wonderful three-story stone building with a theater on the main floor. Many a vaudeville actor performed on its stage during its long history, including cowboy star Tom Mix. The City of Prescott owns and operates the Elks Opera House. A major effort is underway to return the theater to its former glory.

Elisabeth Ruffner read “The Elk in the Attic” and gave Leslie’s idea an enthusiastic green light. She also persuaded the Foundation board that this notion had real potential. I promptly donated the manuscript and agreed to handle the marketing end of the project. Walt Anderson, a very talented local artist, college professor and wildlife biologist, also found the story to be both charming and worthwhile. He donated four beautiful and original illustrations. Bridget Reynolds, a superb graphic artist, donated an elegant book design. Elisabeth Ruffner and her daughter, Melissa, offered to publish the book under their company logo, Primrose Press, at no charge. And Wendy Elgen, owner of Classic Prescott Printing, did some magic with numbers and made it possible for us to get the book into print in time for the 2007 holiday season.

All profits from sales of The Elk in the Attic will go toward renovating the Elks Opera House building. The original 1905 architectural rendering is printed on the back cover. When you look at that drawing, be aware that there really is a bull elk named “Bill” standing atop the Elks Opera House right this minute. You can see him if you visit Prescott. For me, “Bill” is more than just a stunning bronze sculpture. He is a reminder that many years ago, I saw something wild and wonderful under a crabapple tree. Something never to be forgotten…

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Copyright © 2007
Illustrations Copyright © 2007 by Walt Anderson