BROOKVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – Throughout his life, Larry D. Horton has been many things, but being an observer led him to his current passion.
The Brookville native is preparing to have the closing book of his “The Final Journey” trilogy published in early March. The first two parts of the series can be found here.
Horton wrote the trio in less than a year. The first book was released in March 2017; Part Two was released in September 2017, and Part Three will be released in March of 2018.
The books are the culmination of a lifetime of experiences, particularly in the past few years.
“Seeing what was going on with the elections the last few years, observing the national, social, and political scenes, the idea had been germinating for a while,” Horton said. “We are going to see a very different society, and the question is if it all falls apart, ‘What are we going to do to survive it?’”
Horton’s books are written as diary entries for a period of one year, beginning with a Christian survivalist couple after they leave their home in Houston, Texas, and travel all the way to the Allegheny National Forest.
“I started writing July 20, 2016, and finished the third book June 4, 2017, so I was very motivated to write,” Horton said.
Born in Brookville, Horton and his family left the area in 1959 when his father’s work took him to Pittsburgh, then Cleveland, where Horton graduated from high school.
He graduated from Grove City College with a degree in World History and International Affairs. Horton then attended Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky where he became a pastor focusing on the Old Testament.
He then spent five years in Taiwan as a missionary teaching the Old Testament in small Christian churches.
Upon returning to the U.S., Horton studied at Michigan State where he obtained a Ph.D. before settling in the Houston area, beginning his career as a consultant in the international business field.
Horton began to write full-time after he retired.
He has consulted with Mykel Hawke on his books. Hawke, a retired Captain in the U.S. Special Forces and a global survival expert, is known to many for appearances on survival shows on the Discovery channel and elsewhere.
Hawke, who has become a good friend to Horton, was very complimentary of Horton’s work.
“Firstly, it’s just downright good story-telling, keeping me enthralled chapter by chapter. Secondly, it was properly educational, teaching so many sound survival principles everyone should know, in my humble opinion.”
“Thirdly, It also tackles what I consider to be simultaneously the most difficult and the simplest of challenges we will face in a mass disaster or large-scale conflict situation – challenges of faith, hope and belief in the face of some of humanity’s most brutal realities, when some people would choose the most cruel and vile conduct under the guise of expedient survival.”
“And finally, it shows a way that humanity can restore the balance and return to a way of peace, and in fact, maybe even a more peaceful place than we’ve ever known, all made possible, only because of the calamity endured,” Hawke said in a review of Horton’s writing.
Horton says there are four words that are crucial to the story: evaluate, escape, evade, and endure. Horton used these because he wanted them to be the underlying words that help guide the characters’ decision-making along their journey.
“You ask why these four words, the ‘4 E’s’ are important to me. I believe, when combined with my Christian faith, that these words describe how I have tried to live my life,” Horton said.
Horton said he is currently working on marketing his trilogy.
“That’s as time-consuming as anything,” Horton said.
Dr. Horton and his wife, Jude, have three children, five grandchildren, two dogs, and live in Katy, Texas.
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