Hi everyone, guess it's time to bite the bullet and tell you something about myself—the newbie.  An old guy, I relish being a newbie so I always try to work that in. 

Some consternation goes with being referred to as elderly, but the condition, though fatal, has allowed me to retire and pursue the two things in life that had always escaped me: teaching and writing. For the first, I teach ESL 20 hours a week. During the other 20 I pursue the second. I have written one novel, a vaguely literary opus that interested no one else but I had to write, and, having got it out of my system, discovered the scribbling urge is as strong as ever. This time around, I hope to write a mystery so shamelessly on point with what editors want they will be forced to put up or shut up.

Whether talent to write compellingly survived 30 years of a business career is an open question; that it ever existed an assumption I have absolutely no basis for but like to believe.  I did have a modicum of success in business during the first years, disillusionment during the next 15, and a personal tragedy in the last 7. Along the way my first wife and I raised 3 kids so outstanding as to be the only source of doubt I ever had about their mother.  After my first wife died, I married a wonderful lady who also writes mysteries but has not answered the greatest mystery of all why did she marry me.  I look forward to participating in the group, and to a definitive answer to the burning question; can you teach an old guy new tricks?