Gary M. Roberts, About the Author

Gary Mark Roberts is a restless man. That is to say, my nature is to be doing something, and my goal is to do something meaningful with my life. I firmly believe God created me and all creation with a purpose, and He instilled into us a desire to fulfill that for which we were created.

In 1975, I decided to join the Army, and it was the ideal place for me then. I only served for three years, but the lessons I learned have lasted me a lifetime. The army taught me discipline, something I was in desperate need of. In the army, I also learned to type and type well.

Desiring to get out of hard labor, I opted to serve as the company armorer. As an armorer, one of my duties included paperwork…lots of it. Since I never took typing in school, Uncle Sam sent me to a typing class where I learned to operate the most advanced word processing equipment the army had to offer; IBM Selectomatic typewriter…with no letters on the keys. I didn’t know it then, but that was the best way for me to learn. I had to actually LEARN to type without the benefit of looking at a keyboard.

After leaving the army, I went into law enforcement, another decision I am proud of. When I first started in policing in 1980, I envisioned it as a good respectable way to earn a living. I had no idea it would become a life-long career, of which I am very proud. At this writing, it is the start of 2024, my 44th year and perhaps my last. It has been an awesome journey and one I am extremely proud of. I started as a young recruit and have risen to the top position of chief of Police. Not bad for a guy who once quit school.

Yes, I quit school at sixteen. Thankfully, I went back and finished, and, in my thirties, I started attending college. I earned a Master's in Education and a Doctorate of Theology and went on to teach in one of the college's satellite schools. I also did some substitute teaching at a local middle and high school for a time.
Reading and storytelling have always been passions of mine, and it just came naturally for me to begin writing novels. Growing up in rural South Georgia, much of my time as a boy was spent camping, fishing, and on horseback. Even now, my idea of relaxation is camping along the Ogeechee River and sleeping under the stars, much like the characters in the Western novels I enjoy reading.

While I enjoy watching old Westerns and reading Western novels, I knew I needed to write something different. I didn’t grow up in the West, and truthfully, other than what I’ve read about, I don’t know about the West. I wanted to write what I knew about…the South and Southern history!

The places in my books, for the most part, are actual places, communities, towns, and cities. They are places I have visited, camped, and lived around, and some of the characters in my books are based on actual people I’ve met.
I enjoy writing, and not wanting to sound egotistical, I enjoy my stories and the characters who make them up. As the great storyteller Louis L’Amour once said when asked why he spent so much time writing, “I want to see how the story turns out.” Writing is just that. You may start with an idea on paper, but it is your characters who make it happen. What an adventure!

Gary and his wife Carol C. Roberts, who also writes, live on a small farm in southeast Georgia with their fur babies and horses.

http://amazon.com/author/garymroberts

Walker's Trail, Walker's Trail, Return to the Mountains, Walker's Trail, The Augusta Road