Navajo Nightmare is George's 25th book and 10th mystery from Eakin Press since 2002. He never intended to be an author, though. After dropping out of Engineering School ("boring, boring, boring") he switched to journalism for BJ and MA degrees in mass communication from The University of Texas at Austin. Following graduation, he entered the advertising, public relations, and sales promotion business with a small agency in Dallas. At various times, he served as Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and President and CEO. Under his leadership, the agency grew from $3.5 million in billings and 13 employees to $58 million with 50 employees. Client campaigns under his direction were awarded 144 significant awards, including a Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America, an international CLIO for excellence in advertising, several EFFIES from the New York Chapter of the American Marketing Association, and multiple Silver Spurs from the Texas Public Relations Association. During his 33-year career in the advertising agency business in Dallas, he wrote everything from broadcast commercials to print ads, to outdoor boards, to corporate annual reports--even some terrible doggerel filled with even-worse puns. At the end of 1998, he retired. And soon became bored enough to write the story of a group of his friends who'd kept in touch for decades following high school. "I never thought of it as a book," he says. "I did it strictly for the amusement of my friends." That anti-boredom amusement turned out to be Growing Up Simple: An Irreverent Look at Kids in the 1950s. An instant award-winning success and the first of his many books. In addition to three nonfiction novels and 10 mysteries, he has written 12 semi-bilingual, fun and funny international adventure stories featuring the languages and lifestyles of Mexico, Italy, Argentina, France, Germany, Russia, China, Egypt, Brazil, and Japan. The Cats of the CIA set. He was elected to the American Advertising Federation's Southwest Hall of Fame in 2010. He has been recognized in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Business and Finance, and with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. George and his wife of 55 years live in a suburb of Dallas. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
