Allan Leverone Bio
I confess, I've been living a secret life for nearly three decades. I've been paying the bills by working as an air traffic controller, but during all those years I've had these freaky "what-ifs" gnawing at my brain. You know, what if that nice guy in the neighborhood - the one everybody likes and who has barbecues in his backyard every weekend in the summer - what if that guy was a professional assassin?
Or, what if a guy imprisoned for murder for forty years finally gets out of jail and the first thing he wants to do is have a little reunion with the girlfriend he left behind so long ago?
You get the idea, right? What if? The possibilities are endless; at least I hope they are, because I really love to write and I would hate to find out all the good ideas are used up.
Anyway, back to the bio stuff: I attended the University of Notre Dame after high school with the intention of becoming a newspaper journalist, but declared a major in Business Adminsitration after my freshman year. Why? Who knows, but after graduating in 1981 I found work with the FAA as an air traffic controller and have been earning a living moving airplanes around in the sky ever since.
About the age of ten, I discovered, in rapid succession: A) Sherlock Holmes, and B) the Hardy Boys, and my eyes were opened to worlds I never knew existed. A few years later, I made a similar discovery with some ex-English teacher named Stephen King, and I've never been the same. I'll leave it to others to judge whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
As far as writing goes, along about the time I first heard of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's perceptive crime-solver I wrote my first short story - a suspense tale involving a man who gets lost in the woods during a brutal winter snowstorm and isn't found for weeks. When his body is discovered, there is one tear frozen to his lifeless cheek. I still like that ending.
I've completed (so far) two novel-length manuscripts and numerous short stories, one of which ("The Road to Olathe") has found its way into the Ten for Ten anthology for sale here as well as at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com, and another ("Independence Day") that is featured in the July/August issue of Crimeandsuspense.com, Tony Burton's wonderful subscription ezine. If you love suspense and you love short stories, twelve bucks at his site buys you a year of some of the best, sent right to your email inbox.
Right now I'm seeking representation for my work. In plain English, that means I'm trying to get a literary agent interested enough in one of my novels to take me on as a client and try to sell my book to a publisher. If you're curious, you can follow my progress in my blog.
Now, the personal stuff: I'm married to the best girl in the world, and have been for exactly a quarter-century. How she puts up with me, I honestly will never understand. I have three wonderful children, who fortunately have inherited my one or two good traits and none of the other stuff and who, luckily for them, mostly take after their mom. And finally, I have the sweetest one year old granddaughter who loves to type on my computer keyboard. If this bio is completely unintelligible, blame her; she wrote most of it.
Thank you so much for reading and for joining me on this little adventure. I have no idea how it will turn out in the end but appreciate the support more than you know.