We always had books around the house and I loved to read. My favorite author when I was kid was the Civil War historian, Bruce Catton. Then in my 30s I started reading spy novels, particularly Eric Ambler and others like him, followed by John LeCarre and others like him, such as Downing, Kerr and Furst. In my 30s I also discovered the Swedish and Scandinavian crime writers - Wahloo, then Mankell, now Nesbo. I published my first book in 1977, then two more in 1980 and 1983. All were non-fiction. I stopped writing for many years because I wouldn't write if I couldn't get published and it was too difficult to deal with agents, editors, publishers, etc. Then I started doing some short pieces on the internet and finally discovered self-publishing of books on the web. So now I'm writing again. I have been in the gun business for 35 years and have sold more than 40,000 guns and also trained more than 2,000 men and women in shooting techniques and gun safety. So I figured it was time to write a book about guns. I enjoyed writing it and I hope you'll enjoy reading it. I also do blogs about guns for the Huffington Post.