About me

At Castillo Gilbralfaro in Malaga, Spain
Yes, I love to travel!

I’m told readers like to know something personal about the authors whose books they read. I find that interesting because I never was that way. What I always cared about was the story, not the personal life of the individual who wrote it. Maybe that’s because I never liked talking about myself. But in the interest of partial disclosure, here are some things you may or may not care to know about me:

I can order off the Senior Menu at restaurants now, but it wasn’t always that way. I actually did have a youth, a young-adulthood, and a middle age, each of which personal epoch included, as with all of us, some highs and lows. Highs: a happy marriage, two wonderful daughters and four vibrant grandkids, some fun travel, long-lasting friendships, and the privilege of getting to work with some great special needs kids over the years. Lows—I forget.

I grew up in a military family. We moved around a lot. I went to thirteen different elementary and secondary schools in the United States and Puerto Rico. What I remember most about those years was always being the new kid in school, which kept me slightly off-kilter as I strived to fit in. But along the way I learned the importance of being adaptable to one’s environment, and that lesson has served me well in many aspects of my life.

I continued my itinerant ways during my college years: I attended eight different colleges in four different states, picking up along the way degrees in Liberal Arts, English, and Business Administration, and teaching credentials in Special Education. To me, education is like food: it provides the sustenance so critical to life—but without the calories!

My work experience is as disjointed as my education: I’ve worked, among other things, as a door-to-door fire alarm salesman, a steelworker, a college bookstore manager, an IRS tax auditor, a park caretaker, a school bus driver, a library aide, an educational assistant, and a special education teacher. I always envied people who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. I never did, probably because all I ever really wanted to be was a writer.

I actually did write (although not prolifically) during my working years. I wrote a couple of novels and two book-length non-fiction manuscripts, and some short stories. A couple of the short stories got published in literary magazines, but the book-length manuscripts weren’t good enough to be published. It wasn’t until I retired from full-time employment and really dedicated myself to writing that my writing skills improved enough for me to write books worth publishing. So I am very much a late bloomer when it comes to writing.

Okay, so now (if you actually read this far) you no doubt know more about me than you cared to know. Then again, if you really want to know who I am, you’ll have to read my fiction. That is where you’ll find my heart and soul.

More about my writing at Amazon's Author Central

Questions or comments: Feel free to contact me at bkmayo.comment@gmail.com.