The Trouble Upstream

Home for Beaver is a wild river in Arizona, and like Ratty in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows he can think of no better place to live than somewhere surrounded by water.The snag is that the river seems to be drying up and someone needs to do something about it. The Trouble Upstream chronicles the adventures of Beaver and his friends Skunk and Ringtail as they trek to the river's source in search of a solution.In their journey they tangle with a succession of creatures native to the area - each with an impact on their mission. Pack rats, ground squirrels, a rattlesnake, javelinas, coatimundis and a Gila monster are among the more prominent characters.As in the human world, difficult decisions have to be made and the result will not satisfy everyone. But, in fighting to preserve their homes, the creatures are surely following a justifiable precedent. A.L.Means grew up in England and lives in Arizona. As a journalist he has written for newspapers and magazines in Britain and the United States.His recent fiction includes A Passion Worth Pursuing, a light-hearted erotic adventure released by eXtasy Publishing. Other fiction includes a novel centered on a rock singer, Shine Like The Sun; a set of short stories entitled Foreign Ways; and two tales for children and the young at heart, The Trouble Upstream and When Rabbits Ran Rampant.Under the name Andrew Means, he has also written a memoir about the country music entertainer Marty Robbins (entitled Some Memories - Growing Up With Marty Robbins), a biography of the rock group Pink Floyd and an introduction to novelist and essayist George Orwell.