Official Site of Charlie Steel Author and Tale-Weaver Extraordinaire

OFFICIAL SITE OF CHARLIE STEEL AUTHOR
TALE-WEAVER EXTRAORDINAIRE

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ABOUT CHARLIE STEEL

COMMENTS BY CHARLIE:

Like a giant condor soaring high in the air, a good story should give the same thrill and feeling of
exuberance. MY ONE GREAT DESIRE IS THAT ALL OF MY STORIES BE UPLIFTING TO THE
READER.

I suppose all writers have their own unique experiences that cause them to become authors.
What contributed to my love of the written word and the western genre, was the small hidden
library belonging to my father. In it were the books that were in part compiled when my father
courted my mother and he gave her gifts of Zane Grey, James Oliver Curwood, Gene Stratton
Porter, Margaret Mitchell, and other such literature. At age seven, I opened that built-in
cupboard. I found inside the books' covers countless endearments inscribed by my father to
my mother. I then began reading those books, those gifts of love, and never stopped. Those
books transformed me. From that time of my childhood and into my adulthood, I never went
anywhere without a book.

Another influence to becoming a writer started at age five (it was a small town in the fifties). I
would walk down to the Saturday afternoon matinée. For a quarter, and then later for fifty
cents, I watched Hop-along Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Randolph Scott, and so many
others on that large screen. For me there were four worlds in my childhood. One was the
world of a book, another was the world created on that screen on Saturday afternoons, the
third was the magic of forest and stream, and the fourth was real life.

Reality struck eventually. There were many jobs before, during, and after college. They ranged
from working in a grocery store starting at ten years of age, to construction worker, to salvage
diver, to oil field worker, and government work behind the Iron curtain---AND, more than twenty
other different occupations.

I began writing at age twenty and, while attending college, I completed many short stories, two
plays, and a novel. It took me eight years to finish my final degree. I worked for the
government and raised a family and from time to time continued to write. My closet shelves
filled with completed manuscripts, including many novels. Eventually, I left work and moved to
a large ranch out west. After thirty-five years my manuscripts fell into the hands of a publisher
who continues to edit and print that body of work.