Grandy Writes? Grandy? Who is Grandy? Great question. My grandfather always went by his first name, Fran, with the grandkids. My dad, Dirck, followed suit his grandkids including my two kids, Noah and Sam. I figured I would do the same. At some point, Grandy (Grandfather Andy) was suggested even before the first grandkid arrived (Charlie) and it stuck.

My first career (if you will) was a middle and high school social studies teacher for more than forty years. I loved every minute of it. Well, most of it. The true blessing was the opportunity to teach classes like Criminal Justice, Forensic Science, and Sociology of Deviance for the last fifteen years until I finally retired in the fall of 2024.

Retirement has been anything but. More time with my kids and grandkids. More time to play golf and ski. More time to make beer and then give most of it away. More time to act on stage. More time to travel with my wife, Cathy. More time to volunteer in my community. And, of course, more time to write.

I’ve always loved to write, and for the last 40 years, it has grown to be a big part of both my professional and personal life. Professionally, I also encouraged my students to write in response to some strange scenario that I created for them (i.e. describe a crime that one celebrity committed on another; include three types of blood spatter patterns at the scene and how each each was important to solving the crime; include the back story for extra credit). You get the idea.

On the personal side, I was no different. From annual Christmas letters to graduation speeches to short stories, I have relished the process putting my warped thoughts on paper. But to write a book was something else completely. Writing a novel has always been on my bucket list, and I had been working on a murder mystery off and on for years. Only after a two hundred year old antique desk fell into my lap, did I know that I had a story to tell and jumped in with both feet. Now more than four years later, here we are.