In my day job, I'm a mild-mannered industrial hygienist.  In my spare time, I write Westerns.  What has started out as a way to amuse myself turned into an obsession after my first book was picked up by Western Trail Blazer and debuted in 2011. My second novel is now out, and with any luck, I plan to start my third soon.   Writing Westerns is a far cry from the degrees I have in biology and industrial hygiene and I think that's what I find so appealing about it.  It removes me from the present day world of technology and into a simpler time when things didn't move so quickly and people had more control over the direction of their own lives. I grew up in Kansas, the heart of the Old West, when the Western reigned supreme on TV and the movies, and although raising a family pushed aside my interest in this era of American history, I have returned to it in the last few years.