My passion for creative writing began after a typical small town boyhood in Kokomo, Indiana. Paper routes, basketball, teen dances and too many greasy French fries were followed with a BA degree at Wabash College, a small liberal arts college just down the road from Purdue. As an English major, I contributed cartoons and satiric articles to the humor magazine and short stories to the more serious literary publication.



After a fun summer in New Orleans, where I survived by selling Bibles from door to door, Uncle Sam provided me with room and board for the next three and a half years. Most of this time was spent as a German linguist fighting the Cold War with a gun and a dog on the East/West German border. Thanks to the GI Bill, I enjoyed a post army vacation at the Free University in Berlin before I arrived at the decision that it was time to get serious about my life and get a job.

The Big Apple beckoned. A job didn’t. Some finance courses at The New York Institute of Finance were required before I boarded a Greyhound Bus for Chicago and a job as an account executive with a major investment firm. I have resided in Chicago ever since, and my business card now reads: First Vice President—Investments. During this time I collaborated with an associate, Robert Nussbaum, in writing and announcing the first TV coverage of the stock market on WFLD-TV, which won a local Emmy award for news broadcasting in Chicago. We moved from TV to WAIT-AM radio, a major station, where I continued to write and announce spot market reports—and 30-second commercials for the firm for next 16 years.

All of this did not leave me as much time for creative writing as I would have liked, but I managed to keep my hand in. A number of short stories were published in Mike Shane’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Among them, "The Hard Cure," received an Honorable Mention in Best Detective Stories of 1972. A mystery novel, "The Satyr Candidate," made the bookshelves in 1979, and several screenplays were scripted, some in collaboration with my brother, Charles. One screenplay, "Death Angel," took us to Los Angeles in 1985 to participate in its presentation before an audience by actors with The American Film Institute Alumni Association. Some of these screenplays were optioned, one by Don Johnson Productions and another by Graham Henderson, the associate producer of Hoosiers. The screenplay on which "The Lazarus Conspiracies" was based was a top ten finalist in the Illinois/Chicago Screenwriting 2000 Competition. 

The passion continues. I have just completed another novel, "The Gumshoe," a mystery set in Chicago circa 1947, and a sequel to "The Lazarus Conspiracies" is next on the agenda. But when I can pry my fingers off the keyboard of my laptop, I usually reach for a book or a video of a vintage flick in my ever expanding library. I also find time at my Indiana lake retreat to hit tennis balls, bike and swim. When the opportunity presents itself, I’m good enough behind a set of drums to sit in with jazz groups—or so my lovely wife, Kay, tells me. Aside from being the love of my life, she is also my enthusiastic cheerleader and nutritionist. Keeping me healthy is a priority. No more greasy French fries.

Sincerely,
Richard Rose
Author of THE LAZARUS CONSPIRACIES (Savant 2013)