By Sarah Stephens
Elmore Autauga News
Bryan Mosher, of Prattville, is already an accomplished author of children’s books, but his latest offering delves into the issue of child trafficking.
This work of fiction is entitled “Child Trafficking and the Underground Railroad.”
The serious subject strays quite a bit from his usual humorous writings, under the pseudonym of Dilbert “Dill” Pickles.
It was a challenge to write this book, on several different levels. Primarily, the idea came from the NANO International Challenge for authors to write a novel in 30 days. The subject content came from a real-life experience in our area.
Mosher said that he remembered an account in Prattville where there was an attempted abduction of a child, but fortunately it was thwarted by good Samaritans. From there he began to research, and while he completed the task on time, there was a three-month period of editing.
He now has possession of both hard and soft-cover books, and more can be ordered online.
The Elmore Autauga News is excited to host a book signing event for Mosher this coming Friday, July 12, at our office from 4 to 7 p.m. There will be light refreshments available. Our office is located in Millbrook at 3455 Main Street to the left of AirNow. (Across the road from Millbrook Presbyterian Church.) The public is invited.
“The subject matter may be strong, but I want readers to know there is no overt sexual content,” Mosher said.
In his introduction of the book, Mosher says most people believe that child trafficking can’t happen, or at least it cannot happen to them. But a U.S. Department of State 2019 Trafficking Persons Report, show that 77 percent of trafficking victims are exploited within their county of residence.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline statistics show a 25 percent jump in human trafficking cases from 2017 to 2018.
Of the more than 23,500 runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2018, one in seven were likely victims of child sex trafficking.
In the book, the method of moving the trafficked children uses the old locations of the Underground Railroad from the Civil War era. This idea came to him when a friend, who has a very old home, discovered her home had been a part of the Underground Railroad.
Mosher channeled his grandfather for the older male in the book.
In the novel, when a victim is rescued from an old underground railroad station, the grandfather, his two grandsons, local law enforcement and citizens take action.
When Mosher was just five-year-old, his parents split apart. He thereafter grew up in his grandfather’s home. He said his grandparents played a vital role in his upbringing.
“In this novel I have tried to portray my grandfather in almost a heroic light, and I can assure you he was that and more.”
If you are interested in his book, you can purchase a signed copy at our event Friday. You can also purchase the book through Amazon by doing a search for Bryan Mosher. Finally, you can contact Mosher directly at through email at [email protected]
Mosher is already working on his second novel and admits this whole writing thing is quite addictive. “I really enjoy it,” he said with a big smile.
More about Bryan Mosher
Bryan Mosher, of Prattville, is living proof that a good sense of humor and a great imagination can get you through many troubles in life. He is a 100% disabled 20-year veteran from the US Navy. During his lifetime he has been shot, walked away from a helicopter crash when some did not, fell in the engine room on the aircraft carrier Eisenhower during Desert Storm breaking both ankles, been run over on the interstate by a tractor trailer truck, and in 2016 diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma where the final chemotherapy treatment brought on a heart attack.
Bryan, who until now had been exclusively a children’s book author, is living quietly in Prattville with his beloved wife Judy. He usually writes under the pen name Dilbert “Dill” Pickles. Most of his books are based on true events and involve himself and his “imaginary” friend Joey. They have some stories to tell, indeed.
Bryan grew up in a small town in upstate New York. His father abandoned the family, leaving his mom to raise him and his three sisters. His leaving forced the family to move in with his grandparents. Before his mom got fully adjusted to the move, his baby sister, Bonnie, was diagnosed with Leukemia and died two days later.
Bonnie had been Bryan’s play partner and his two older sisters, who he refers to as Miss Smarty Pants One and Miss knows it all Two, wanting nothing to do with a five-year-old brother. Bryan quickly overcame being alone by creating his own imaginary friend.
And that is where the Joey adventures really began, along with some hilarious shenanigans of a precocious young boy.
If you ask him when his imaginary friend left, he will smile and say, “What makes you think he is gone?”
