Hello, my name's Jeff. I'm a retired teacher and newspaper reporter/editor, trying to carve out a niche as a novelist. I've got four published so far and I've had some success. The book I'm working on now is about the inordinate number of accidents and catastrophes in the State of West Virginia, and it is the first completely non-fiction effort I've made. Seventeen chapters in, looking good. Grew up in WVa, left to go to college in Ohio and just never made it back home. I practically grew up in the woods as a kid, hunting and camping and fishing with Dad. I don't hunt anymore (easier and cheaper to get a steak at Kroger's), but I still like to fish. I prefer sitting around a small fire in the wilderness over a club. My paradise is a cabin high up in the Alleghenies, and I retreat there sometimes for a week. Two if I can afford it. And it is so quiet that you can hear the leaves fall. AND the reason I mention that is my one desire right now is to be able to sit in a quiet place and have a meaningful conversation with an intelligent woman. Smarts are very, very attractive. Everything else comes after that.