Neil was born in Mississippi; his father who had been a US Navy veteran of World War II joined the US Air Force. This gave Neil the opportunity to travel the United States and Europe. He attended high school in Florida and then obtained college degrees in Political Science and Accounting. He then spent three years in the US Army finishing his service as a 1st Lieutenant in the military police. Finishing his service at Fort Stewart, Georgia he had many experiences which serve as the basis of his fictional novel A Stateside Tour of Duty. After careers as a teamster and as an tax preparation expert he has turned to his lifelong dream of writing. Now as a retired widower he enjoys retirement and time with his grandchildren while desiring to see the current 4-team college football playoff terminated and replaced with a true 16-team playoff. Now as a retired widower, Neil enjoys telling a great story and researching unusual historical facts. He has two living children, fourteen grand-children, and eight great-grandchildren, makes his home in Provo, Utah.
Neil won the William Faulkner Literary Competition novel category in late 2020 for Where is the Glory - The Cader Daniel Mitchell Story. It was published by Pale Horse Publications in July 2022 with the title of: Where is the Glory - A Saga of Tragedy and Triump in the Western genre.
From the back cover:
Nick Moultrie is drafted into the US Army at the height of the Vietnam War. By dumb luck, the new lieutenant avoids being shipped to Vietnam and is assigned to Fort Benjamin McCulloch, Texas. As a pencil pusher for the military police on base, he is safe from the mortal perils of ambushes and booby traps in Southeast Asia, yet he faces other perils almost daily in his mostly desk job stateside. His poorly disciplined unit more resembles the Keystone Cops than professional law enforcement personnel. Lieutenant Moultrie finds himself surrounded by incompetent or corrupt commanding officers, and he never knows when the mind-numbing tedium of his job will suddenly erupt into a crazy, senseless episode in which people are killed and military careers are destroyed. Nick finds refuge and solace in a few friends and honorable commanders whom he can trust. Seeking relief from loneliness, he looks up a buxom girlfriend (Samantha Starr) with whom he had a fling in college, and, while on a few days' leave, proposes to her. Soon he finds himself enjoying the pleasures and tiptoeing through the minefields of matrimony. Gradually his lust for what he first regarded as a sex object turns into genuine love for a peer and an intelligent, intuitive friend. A terrifying dream six months into her first pregnancy convinces Samantha she will die if she gives birth in the ramshackle Army hospital. She goes to live with her parents, where the dream proves prophetic as she narrowly escapes death even in the better-equipped Phoenix hospital. When a callous Red Cross official refuses to inform Nick of these developments, he explodes in anger and retribution, resulting in persecution from his superiors in command. The final insult is his being relieved of duty for a very minor infraction committed while saving the lives of his men in a shootout with an antiwar terrorist group. Nick must somehow find a way to avoid ending his military service in disgrace. As he leaves Fort McCulloch a much wiser-and jaded-man, Nick looks back on the unbelievable events he has endured. His entertaining tale is humorous, eye-opening, and unexpectedly uplifting.
Available from these booksellers: Amazon (paperback, Hardcover, & Kindle EBook)
From the back cover:
In 1960 Henry F. Potter died and left his fortune to his only living relative and heir, a poor Texas rancher named Jack Curtis. Jack refuses to sell his business interests to those who might continue Potter's ways and strives to improve Cayuga National Corporation. (formerly Potter Industries). Meanwhile, George Bailey retires and turns the Building and Loan over to his son Pete, who enlarges and renames the business However, enemies are conspiring to destroy the wonderful improvements Jack and Pete have brought about. Also, the economy of the 1980s was in free fall with many thrifts becoming insolvent. Jack and Pete have to find a way out of the dilemma to save their businesses as well as the town of Bedford Falls.
Available from these booksellers: Amazon - Paperback & Kindle EBook
From the back cover:
In 1861, Cader Mitchell lives in the Piney Woods of Mississippi. He has a large family and a prosperous business in Covington County. He owns no slaves in a society where slave ownership is seen as the ultimate show of status. However, he fears the future as political events have been spinning out of control for years. The new Confederate government promises a glorious future of low taxes and low prices. Cader is not optimistic. Two years later, after a conscription act, six sons are dead. The economy is in shambles and unbelievable disaster is unfolding. Rich men are exempted from combat duty, Confederate officials are collecting taxes in kind to support the war and no end is in sight. Now, some citizens are not only refusing to support the war, they are resisting violently. Some of these men are Cader’s neighbors and friends. In order for his family to survive, Cader Mitchell must carefully chart a course between the opposing forces tearing south-central Mississippi apart in the American Civil War. Based upon actual events and taken from political, church and family records, Where is the Glory: A Saga of Tragedy and Triumph is a sad, heartbreaking and poignant account of common citizens dealing with forces beyond their control and striving to survive in an insane world. While written as a novel, this is the story of my Paternal great-great-great grandparents: Cader and Sarah Mitchell.
Available from these booksellers: Amazon
From the back cover:
In 2014 the powers that be claimed to have finally provided college football with a true playoff to determine a champion in the sport. ESPN, bowl committees, sports radio, and many pundits have extolled the new system. A careful and detailed examination of the new process, however, reveals that in reality very little has changed. The new system preserves the old organization, which ensured that only a few teams would ever be considered for the championship. It puts the Power Five leagues into the position of a closed shop, where no one outside their membership will ever be considered for the four slots the current college football playoff (CFP) allows. The other five leagues (known as the mid-majors) are a perpetual junior varsity that stands on the sidelines praying for a chance to stand briefly outside the shado of the big guys, who pat them on the head occasionally. ESPN and the bowl committees, along with the league commissioners of the Power Five conferences have had their way for far too long. It is time for fans around the country to demand a sixteen-team playoff. This slender volume details how the current situation came to be and how it is maintained, as well as how it is unfair, arbitrary, discriminatory, and downright corrupt. Despite what pro-CFP pundits maintain, college football remains the only sport played on college campuses that has no true national champion. The University of Central Florida is the latest victim of the CFP hoax to be excluded from a chance to prove themselves. Before them were Utah, Boise State, and Texas Christian University. It is time for college football fans to force the so-called Power Five to move over and allow others at the main table of college football. COMMON SENSE DEMANDS IT!
Available from these booksellers: Amazon & Direct from Author