Richard Merrill, Maine writer
Current Work
Richard Merrill is a Maine writer currently working on Digger, a young adult/older middle grade adventure novel with a sci-fi through-line and series potential.
Digger will appeal to fans of Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear, with its determined son, unstable father, and realistic, unsentimental treatment of dinosaurs; and Freak by Marcella Pixley about finding courage in overcoming bullies.
Think Slow West by John Maclean, but for YA, with a dinosaur.
The story is set in eastern Oregon's high desert (home of the famed John Day Fossil Beds), where Merrill grew up. Drawing on his studies of paleontology, evolution, and biology, Merrill has crafted a story that follows a seventh-grade boy and an eighth-grade girl as they deal with an escalating series of events flowing from the momentous discovery of a living dinosaur. It is grounded and realistic, with conspiracy and danger, a paleontologist who was one of the first women in the Army Rangers, a dramatic final high-tech confrontation, and a satisfying conclusion.