Author Alex Hutchinson

From the first day I climbed on a mountain bike, I felt the need to write about the experience. Freedom, independence, self-propulsion and exploration are concepts so revealing of our nature that they beg for the loving embrace of short story fiction. These past six years have provided me with a wealth of interesting characters, intense races and natural beauty. All of which made it easy and fun to write these stories. This is my first collection of short stories which is odd because people have always told me that it is my strongest format. I chose to publish via e-book because I firmly believe that digital media is the wave of the future. Almost all of my books have a version in e-book and they outsell my printed books 4 to 1. Releasing the book this way also allows me to keep a low price and market directly to the target audience - mountain bikers. The genesis of this book came from the yearly Dirt Rag Literature Contest. I loved the idea of fictional tales about this

It was the biggest event ever put on by the boys at SCORR. The 4th annual Piggy's Revenge attracted 161 riders (87 Pre-reg, 74 day of), twice the amount of last year's race. Online promotions created an ongoing conversation about the types of trails, the routes and the best bikes for the job. In the end, people chose a little bit of everything. There were roughly 50 riders for each distance and they were straddling the whole shebang from cross bikes to full suspension rigs to fatties. In addition to individual riders there was more than 30 teams representing. Plus we saw a handful of photographers, reporters from the Herald-Tribune and a drone copter flying high above the trees. In the spirit of riding the wild, some people took it upon themselves to dress up for the occasion. There was a wolf and three piggy's, a mermaid, a pumpkin and a slice of pizza. This was not the kind of event you could watch from the sidelines. For those doing the 20 mile route i