Carl McLelland was born and raised in Southern California, graduating from Whittier High School in 1965. He first became an Army, and then FAA air traffic controller. Carl advanced from a small radar van in the Central Highlands of Vietnam to the control towers and radar rooms (TRACON) at some of the nation's busiest airports. In his last seven years, he promoted into a staff position as an Automation Specialist, and programmed the ARTS III computer system at Sacramento TRACON, and the ARTS IIIA system at Ontario TRACON. Carl became a commercial pilot and flight instructor after his return from Vietnam and flew a variety of planes over the decades until retiring from flying in 2008.He entered law enforcement as a Deputy Sheriff in Reno, Nevada, after retiring from the FAA. Carl specialized in traffic enforcement and accident reconstruction on the department’s major accident investigation team (MAIT), while also teaching at both the local and state police academy.Throughout his adult life, Carl’s been a student of the paranormal and often experienced the effects of the supernatural in his personal life. In 2012, he became involved in the saga of the (haunted) Allen House in Monticello, Arkansas, and its resident spirit, Ladell Allen Bonner. The result of dozens of paranormal interactions with Ladell resulted in Carl writing his first book, "Ladell: Ghost of the Allen House." In writing his first book, he discovered yet another avocation in life: writing. With his first book published, he wrote his next book about his careers as a controller, professional pilot, and cop. Carl lacked academic training in writing, but that didn’t diminish his love of putting pen to paper. He continued to write… improve his ability and perfect his writing style. His next three books included two novels.I always felt my first book was incomplete, and I spent a year conducting further research and investigation into Ladell's life. I uncovered old letters, documentation, photographs, and interviewed people who had known the Allens and their descendants. That led to interviewing a previous owner of Allen house; a lady whose ancestors had known Ladell and her family over several decades. Now able to corroborate what I’d discovered, I wrote the follow-up book, “LADELL: the Final Chapter.”Drained from a paranormal standpoint, I changed genre and looked into another passion; World War II and the Pacific theater. I selected actual people and events that occurred during the war and infused them into a historically accurate novel, “The Indomitable Patriot: Fertig, the Guerrilla General.”Many of my characters were based upon the personalities of real people I’d known throughout life. This provided a base of real, as compared to fantasy people. Further, I called upon experts to both educate me and proofread the story, insuring both historical accuracy and realism. What began as a ‘change of genre’ grew into a twelve-volume series and several other spinoffs, covering the military, OSS, and CIA, into the early twenty-first century.Aurora: a secret airplane. Did it exist, or is it one of the best kept secrets in ultra high performance airplanes? Was it a replacement for the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, or an airplane capable of hypersonic flight, and flight into space? This resulted in three accurate novels of what may have been.I’ve always had a passion and interest in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. I’m one of the ‘conspiracy theorists’ who believe Nefertiti is buried in an undiscovered chamber in KV-62, the tomb of Tutankhamun. Similar to the ‘Patriot’ series, I wrote “Hidden Behind The Mask: the Search For Nefertiti.” That story, historically accurate fiction, ultimately grew into a seven-volume series.Where do we go from here? I’m not a poetic writer. I never minced my words in life, and I’m incapable of doing it as a writer. In describing a scene, I’ll provide enough information that the reader forms his own mental image, rather than describe everything to the n’th degree. I try to bring the reader into the story, rather than provide a movie theater presentation. If I manage to touch your imagination and emotions, then I’ve succeeded.To paraphrase from the movie, The World’s Fastest Indian, ‘I might be seventy-seven on the outside, but I’m still eighteen on the inside.’ Stand by; the best is yet to come….Read more about this authorRead less about this author