My friends call me Bob and my close family calls me Bud. My dad called me Buddy when I was young and it stuck. I'm retired, married to Addie and we have three children. In the summer we work in our yard and gardens, maintain a small fish pond and stream and work inside on rainy days. Late fall and winter are my primary times to write.

Reading has always been my major hobby. In grade school and high school I was an avid reader, finishing several books a week on average.

Initially my writing started and ended in High School when I wrote what I thought was a serious short story. I showed it to one of the librarians for an opinion and she giggled and laughed loudly as she read it. I was humiliated and didn't attempt to write fiction again until many years later.

During my school years I read mostly youth oriented books; T Model Tommy is one of the titles I still remember. I was into hot rods and the story was on that subject.

After high school I joined the Navy and began reading Mystery and Detective novels by Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and others I've long forgotten.

John Camp and Vince Flynn are currently my favorite crime genre authors; I've read all of their past books and am waiting for their newest offerings.

The author who impressed me the most is Ayn Rand. I first read her books in the sixties and read Atlas Shrugged again about every eight to ten years. She's the only author whose books I've ever read multiple times. Last year I read We The Living again. It's a very depressing look at totalitarianism.

I always knew there were stories in my head waiting to be told. I'm a day dreamer and plots and what ifs are always sprouting in my imagination. All I need is solitude to create an outline and start writing. From there the story takes over and new paths develop aside from the original plan.

About seven years ago I began writing a satire; the lead character was Rife L. Kilmor, (Rifle Kill More). It was my first attempt at writing a novel. Soon it changed from satire to the Irrevocable Change trilogy. It developed into a character study of a young man who turns to murder for money. He discovers he can perfect his skills in spite of the emotional trauma it causes him. Some readers have replied that they found themselves liking the central character, Clayton Albrecht, even though they knew they shouldn't. That was the effect I was striving for. I wanted to show his involvement with family and friends in contrast with the cold blooded murders he was capable of. This type of book is fun to create because there are no boundaries. The only limits I impose on myself are that the storyline needs to be realistic and the characters can't do things I think are impossible. I also strive to explain how actions are carried out instead of just reporting something was done and leaving the reader in the dark as to how it occurred. I do stretch the limits at times, but not to the impossible.

In January of 2011 I published the Irrevocable Change trilogy. Reverse Metamorphosis is book one. Book two is The Assassin Evolves and book three is The Devils Homecoming. I strongly suggest they be read in the book number order as they are a continuation of one story.

During 2011 I wrote and published My Perceptions of Our Incompetent Incumbents, a political commentary about politics and the U.S. Congress. It was followed by a short love story, The Agreement. I had an idea for a crime story and thought it would be a challenge to use the crime plot as the center devise of a love story.

Late in 2011 I published another crime story, The Blonde Heiress, a Carter A. Johnson novel. Carter is an ex police officer who is involved with a group imposing double jeopardy on guilty criminals who have escaped the justice system. The second book in that series, The Dogtrot Murder, was published in 2012. The second main character in it intrigued me as the story developed. Kate went from a disposable single book supporting character to one I'll use in other Carter A. Johnson books, or she'll get her own series.

My books are published by Smashwords.com. The site is an ebook publisher and retailer. The founder, Mark Coker, has negotiated for other retailers to carry the books published by Smashwords. Currently Barnes and Noble, Apple, Sony, Kobo, Diesel, and Baker & Taylor carry Smashwords published books. An arrangement with Amazon is being negotiated, but it isn't finalized yet.

The ebooks are available in all of the most popular electronic reader formats.

Reverse Metamorphosis, book one of the Irrevocable Change trilogy and The Blonde Heiress are both free as part of my marketing effort.

Since I'm closing on the issue of marketing, I want to ask each of you for a favor. Please take time to return to the sites you purchase ebooks at to write a review and rate the stories you read. It accomplishes two purposes. Reviews are the primary source of marketing for most independent and self published writers. Even if you don't like the story write a short review to help the author improve his craft. Reviews also alert other readers to the good and not so good books available.

I hope you enjoy my stories,

R.E. Schobernd