I always wanted (and intended) to write fiction but I had to wait beyond a profession in academics to begin my second life as a novelist. As a historian, I published ten books on American culture, and I was fortunate enough to spend a number of years as visiting professor in Europe and Australia. This was immensely satisfying, but it still didn't fulfill my desire to write imaginative works—to be free from the objectivity demanded by the history profession. Toward the end of my academic career, I began to become aware—painfully aware—of the limitations of historical writing, and I turned to fiction because of its ability to imagine (without footnotes) the interior thoughts, motivations, and expression of character. I began my new career cautiously. My first venture was a self-published book of short stories, entitled, SECRETS AND STRANGERS. This was really an apprenticeship for my next book entitled THE KEY PARTY (a satire on the golf community where I grew up). My next novel, ZONA ROMANTICA, was published in the spring of 2020 with the amateur sleuth, Amanda Pennyworth, the American Consul to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Completely different from my first novel, it is a mystery in an exotic, but familiar setting. A third novel appeared in October, 2020, entitled TALES OF LITTLE EGYPT. This was a new genre of writing for me and took the unusual format of thirteen integrated stories about imaginary characters who lived in Marion, Illinois at the turn of the 19th Century, in the unique area called "Little Egypt." Following that, I returned to writing mysteries, and published MURDER AT THE OLYMPIAD, also set in Puerto Vallarta and with the same sleuth as ZONA ROMANTICA. The latest book in this Amanda Pennyworth series, and appearing just now is MURDER AT AMAPAS BEACH. All of my novels, (and I think necessarily), reflect my experiences and memories disguised and re-imagined by fiction. TALES OF LITTLE EGYPT, for example, is loosely based upon my childhood summers spent in Southern Illinois, and the extended family which is my heritage there. And the mystery series set in Puerto Vallarta is based on several trips to that popular tourist destination and my fascination with the mixture of cultures (Mexican and American) that define this vacation Mecca. It seemed to me the perfect setting involving a sleuth who must navigate between two cultures to solve a crime.