About
Although born in Michigan, Walt Shiel was raised across the US and around the world as an Air Force “brat.” He started school on the Pacific Island of Guam during the Korean War and finished high school in France during the Vietnam War. Shortly after graduation, Charles DeGaulle kicked all American forces out of the country, but Walt swears it had nothing to do with him.
Subsequently, he earned a BSEE degree from Michigan State University, a commission and pilot wings from the Air Force, and the hand of a charming young woman named Kerrie. Walt spent 20 years as an Air Force pilot (including time in the Michigan Air National Guard) and logged 4,000 military and civilian flying hours.
As a civilian engineer, he worked at Northrop on the B-2 bomber program and at Lockheed Martin on the F-16, F-35, and F-22 fighter programs. He retired from Lockheed Martin in 2004. Walt is currently the publisher and managing partner at Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC.
Since 1990, Walt has written for magazines in the US, England, and Australia and authored five books -- military aviation history, historical fiction, and short stories.
He and Kerrie have two daughters and two grandchildren and live on a 40-acre Michigan farm populated with horses, cats, dogs, and an abundance of wildlife.
Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God
Description
<p>“<em>We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”(</em>Teilhard de Chardin<em>)</em></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;"><em>Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God </em> is as layered as a French cassoulet, as diverting, satisfying and as rich. Each reader will spoon this book differently. On the surface it seems to be a simple and light-hearted poetic journey through the history of Western thought, dominantly scientific, but enriched with painting and music. Beneath that surface is the sauce of a new evolutionary idea, involution; the informing of all matter by consciousness, encoded and communicating throughout the natural world. A book about the cathedral of consciousness could have used any language to paint it, but science is perhaps most in need of new vision, and its chronology is already familiar.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The author offers a bold alternative vision of both science and creation: she suggests that science has been incrementally the recovery of memory, the memory of evolution/involution</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">.</em></p><p>“<em> Involution proposes that humans carry within them the history of the universe, which is (re)discovered by the individual genius when the time is ripe. All is stored within our DNA and awaits revelation. Such piecemeal revelations set our finite lives in an eternal chain of co-creation and these new leaps of discovery are compared to mystical experience</em>” (From a reviewer)</p><p>Each unique contributor served the collective and universal return to holism and unity. Thus the geniuses of the scientific journey, like the spiritual visionaries alongside, have threaded the rosary of science with the beads of inspiration, and through them returned Man to his spiritual nature and origin.</p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The separation between experience and the rational intellect of science has, by modelling memory as theory, separated its understanding from the consciousness of all, and perceives mind and matter as separate, God and Man as distinct. This work is a dance towards their re-unification: Saints and scientists break the same bread.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">All of time and all the disciplines of science are needed for the evidence. Through swift (and sometimes sparring) Cantos of dialogue between Reason and Soul, Philippa Rees takes the reader on a monumental journey through the history of everything – with the evolution of man as one side of the coin and involution the other. The poetic narrative is augmented by learned and extensive footnotes offering background knowledge which in themselves are fascinating. In effect there are two books, offering a right and left brain approach. The twin spirals of a DNA shaped book intertwine external and internal and find, between them, one journey, Man’s recovery of Himself., and (hopefully) the Creation’s recovery of a nobler Man.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">From the same review “</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">The reader who finishes the book will not be the same as the one who began it. New ideas will expand the mind but more profoundly, the deep, moving power of the verse will affect the heart.</em></p><p><em>(Marianne Rankin: Director of Communications, Alister Hardy Trust)</em></p><p> </p>
Reviews
<p>Will have readers frantically turning the pages! This dramatic retelling of the largest wildfire in Michigan's history is well written and riveting. Based on newspaper accounts, documented interviews and oral histories, this tragedy comes to life for a new generation to understand...The author carefully laid the foundation by describing the town and introducing the key characters. Readers become connected to this place and its people, thereby forming a strong emotional attachment...Thanks to the writing ability of Walt Shiel, this catastrophic moment of history leaps off the written page and into the hearts of readers. --Joyce Handzo, <em>In The Library Reviews</em></p>
<p>Shiels compassionate writing creates a community of bright, supportive, and determined people, whose characters develop and deepen as the fire growsthis novel never slows down, but leaves the reader with a great respect for the hardy, strong-willed people who fought and survived wildfires all across the States, and built up their lives in the aftermath. --Catherine Perkins, <em>Historical Novel Society</em></p>
<p><em>Devil in the North Woods</em> is a work of historical fiction, based on modern reports and oral histories of a terrible 1908 wildfire in Michigan. Ten-year-old Henry Hardies survived the fire that claimed his mother and three younger sisters; in real life, Hardess told personal stories that his own children have handed down to this day. <em>Devil in the North Woods</em> vividly recreates the terrible blaze from start to finish, the toll it took, and the trials of human beings forced to recover from the devastating losses it inflicted. Though <em>Devil in the North Woods</em> tells the story of man vs. nature, its core is emotional and human-centered. --<em>Midwest Book Review</em></p>
<p>The best of the bunch reviewed here is Walt Shiel's hellraising account of a blazing inferno that torched the northern end of our peninsula...Written with the pace of a thriller, <em>Devil in the North Woods</em> is a grim but fascinating read, building a bonfire of the dusty pages of history. --<em>Northern Express Weekly</em></p>
<p>WOW, What a Read! As a rule I am not a fan of fiction, historical or otherwise...However, every once in a while there is an exception and this book is a perfect example. I have been intrigued with Wildfires after once living on the western slope of Colorado and experiencing their often devastating effects first hand on numerous occasions...The author skillfully blends the true story of Michigan's largest wildfire in modern history...and the actual experiences of survivor Henry Hardies with a host of other characters...to tell a story that is highly readable, believable, and guaranteed to hold your interest from first page to last. The effects of the fire...are recounted in vivid detail and contain elements of love, death, sorrow, family, friendship, and rebirth that will leave the reader both a bit sad and yet hopeful...This is first-rate writing that at times will leave you wondering whether it is fact or fiction but in a manner that does not deceive or talk down to the reader. Highly Recommended. --Charles M. Nobles, Amazon.com Top 100 Reviewer</p>
