I am a writer who moonlighted for over thirty-two years as a government employee. My career, which ended in 2011, was in serving people who are blind, and I spent twelve years as the Director of Rehabilitation Services for the Blind for the State of Mississippi. I am keeping busy now part-time as the administrator of my bride's psychology practice (Dr. Susan Neral), called "Maximizing Individual Potential, LLC".
I have written mysteries, though, since 1989, "coming out" to my family and friends as a writer in 1991. At first, we would print the two books I wrote a year for the family as Christmas presents, giving one away to a different outside person or family each year.
Then the Internet and e-mail came along, and I began giving away a half-chapter a week, two mysteries a year, to anybody who wanted to read my stuff. Now I have over two hundred "weekly readers" in thirty one states, England, and the Island of Saipan (I had to Google that one!)
Since I retired, I have fulfilled a long-time dream to have my books available to readers from the Mississippi Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which meant so much to my blind grandfather. They asked me to narrate, and we have released seven thus far to the blind readers. The Friends of Handicapped Readers, which supports the library with purchase of equipment, is putting out three of these per year--in April, August, and November--to raise funds.
And now my work is available for Kindle readers through Amazon in, as of this writing (June 2012) two different series, The Gandy Mysteries and the nonfiction "The Gandy Miniatures", which collects various stories I have told as an after-dinner speaker, sent to my rehabilitation staff, or wrote as part of a column I had years ago when I worked for a church.
My goal is, simply stated, to make my works accessible to as many readers as are interested; making money comes far behind that.
As a reader, I am fairly eclectic, preferring biographies, popular histories, works about music and musicians, and fiction from a selected group of writers.
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