I didn’t get serious about writing fiction until pretty late in my life. I found a fiction writers group at my local library in Tarpon Springs, Fla. around 2015, dusted off an old novel I had started in the 1990s and, with the help of the writers in the group, finally got it finished.

Much to my surprise, it won a Silver Award in the Florida Writers Association’s annual Royal Palm Literary Awards competition. “Nailing Coloradas” is now available on Amazon in Kindle format.

So I want the term “award-winning novelist” to appear prominently in my obit.

I did a few short stories to read to the writers group, and one of them has turned into another novel, “Bernie’s Shell,” which is about 80 percent complete and will hopefully be ready for the FWA competition this year.

In doing some genealogical work on my family, and having my DNA analyzed, I came across an unanticipated story that I hope will be novel #3. There’s no way I can uncover all the facts of the story since it happened 125 years ago, so I’m going to write it in fictional format. If you don’t have the facts, make ’em up!

Here’s the link to “Nailing Coloradas.”