Kenneth L. Decroo, Ph.D.
I had a great time appearing on NBC KSEE24 talking about my new book, Becoming Human. Click on the photo above to view the interview.
Posts Tagged With: Movies
Becoming Human (Book 2) – Pre-orders
After several years of work, Becoming Human is finally finished and the e-book version can be pre-ordered. As many of you know, Becoming Human is book two in the Almost Human Series. It has been a labor of love and I hope you enjoy my humble effort.
In celebration of finally finishing this work, the publisher has made the e-book version available at a discounted price ($2.99) until its scheduled release on December 14, 2018.
Pre-orders really help authors as they increase our ranking at outlets like Amazon, Apple, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble.
E-book, order here!
Autographed Copies:
The pre-order price for an autographed paperback is $14.95, plus shipping and tax. Use the button below if you would like me to send you one when they are released.
Categories: books, novel, Uncategorized
Tags: adventure, africa, Movies, suspense, thriller, wild animal training
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He No Longer Lives in Brazil
The flight from LAX to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) had been a long one but while tired I was excited to be at last joining the movie company to film on location. I had been hired to train Jaguars and was the only America working for the British film. When I met Gabriel at customs, I soon discovered that I had stepped into a surreal world and time. He stared right through me wearing a sweat-stained t-shirt that read “Kill Them All and Let God Sort them Out.” I could just make out a faded French Foreign Legion logo on a worn canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
In a thick Portuguese accent, he said in rehearsed English, “Welcome to Brazil,” and commenced to orchestrate us through customs. This was the tone that the shooting of this movie would take for the better part of a year. We filmed in fifty-five different locations that year which took us from the coast to deep in the jungles of the Amazon. We were on a golden voyage, a real old school adventure and it was 1984. Each day took us further from what we knew to a world of wild animals, jungle darkness, danger, Voodoo and real outlaws. We were a long way from home.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: action, adventure, animals, brazil, Movies, novel, storytelling, travel, writing
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Just One More Story
Photo by Gail Fisher, LA Times, 1980
It is really gratifying to be contacted by so many readers (many are fellow writers) requesting the background story on Almost Human. As a writer, it is a humbling experience to realize your work is reaching out beyond the private and often lonely effort of putting the words on the page.
Recently, I received an email from a reader in Russia (Russia!) who asked where I got the inspiration for Chapter 3, Lester and Girlie. That chapter is based on someone I knew years ago when I worked in the motion picture business who had a unique relationship with an aging chimp. He was an animal trainer in his late seventies or so. The old man and chimp were a real odd couple, who I enjoyed visiting from time to time.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: adventure, animal training, books, Gale Fisher, Movies, novel, novels, storytelling, writing
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On Being Smarter
Ken Decroo and Congo, African Elephant, Photo by Gale Cooper, 1981
Concerning the training of wild animals, I often speak on the importance of being smarter than the animal you’re training. When asked to elaborate on this concept, I immediately think of Congo, an elephant I worked many years ago.
While all elephants are smart, Congo was a genius. He was a big African male that stood almost twice as tall as my six feet. At the time I met him, he lived at an animal safari park in California. I first met him when I was asked to work him for a photo shoot promoting the book, Animal People by Gail Cooper. I was featured in one of the chapters and Gail Cooper wanted a dramatic photograph. Continue reading
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: africa, Animal People, animal training, animals, books, Gale Cooper, Movies
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The Back Story to Chapter One and Two of Almost Human
Ken Decroo with Moja (signing chimp) e. 1984
Several readers have asked me how Almost Human was “born.” I was working as the technical adviser and chimp trainer on a movie that starred Karen Allen and Armand Assante. One evening we were out relaxing after a long day of filming on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After a few drinks Armand commented on how human-like my chimp, Mike seemed. I put on my university professor hat and began pontificating on all the traits we humans shared with chimps including my work as a linguistic research assistant on a project in Reno that had successfully taught chimps to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) as used by the deaf.
That evening after the bar closed I went home and wrote the second chapter where Dr. Turner is lecturing about the similarities and differences of chimpanzees in a University lecture hall at the University of Nevada, Reno. I had worked there on the signing chimp project. I wrote that chapter in about 1984 or so on an old Royal typewriter. Just before dawn, as I finished writing, Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” played on the radio. I put another paper in and wrote the first chapter before going to work.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: action, adventure, almost human, animals, books, chimpanzees, Movies, novel, writing
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