Starting Over

After losing her husband, Janet Porter's life in the wooded heights of Oregon's Willamette Valley has begun to settle down.Everything changes when her son Nate calls from Iraq with unsettling news. Returning home on a medical discharge, Nate doesn't want the accolades or service medals he's offered; he wants to be left alone.Desperate for help, Janet confides in Andy McNamara: a war veteran who volunteers at the local V.A. clinic.It soon becomes clear that Nate's wounds go far deeper than his torn-up leg. As a freak tornado touches down in the Willamette Valley, they're all thrown into a new world - a world of starting over. In addition to his writing, Ron is an avid outdoorsman who has traveled extensively across the Pacific to Nepal, New Zealand and other locations to hike and climb. His two month-long stays in the Himalayas have deeply influenced his views of the world and the awesome beauty it holds. Everest and the people of the mountains in particular.Out of this experience was born "THE LION OF KHUM JUNG", a novel set in the Himalayas, that was a finalist in the Syracuse Downtown Writer's Book of the Year Awards in 2014.Ron resides in Central New York, and in his spare time, he dabbles in photography. Ron also works with the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation in Canada to raise money for the Sherpa children of Nepal's Himalayas.