About the author

George O. Bancroft

<p>I started my working career at age of 16. I worked for the Dept. of the Navy at NAS Alameda (as a civilian). My job had a <em>top-secret</em> security clearance and I didn&rsquo;t sit at a desk. I was creating tasks and solving problems. I can&#39;t tell you what I did, but it was dangerous work. After a few years my family convinced me that I should go to college if I wanted to amount to anything. I took their advice and after eight years of working my way through school I graduated with a B.A. in Literature in 1965.</p><p>I went forth and got an &quot;accelerated management trainee&quot; position at General Electric. I did go up the corporate ladder of various companies as a director of marketing, a VP of marketing and finally I was the CEO. Well, it all may sound great, but I wasn&#39;t really happy at what I was doing. The higher you go in a company, the less you are allowed to be you and the more you become the company. I finally settled all of that in my mind and talked with my wife about it and I went &quot;down the ladder&quot; and did what I wanted to do --- WRITE.</p><p>I am a writer -- first and foremost. I was involved in developing marketing and technical documents in the high-tech environment for more than 25 years. I have created everything from glossy marketing brochures to heavy-duty hardware and software specifications and user manuals. I have also written marketing programs, and sales and technical training programs.</p><p>I wrote, and taught others to write, documents at the level of the audience they were meant to address. Sometimes this was a user manual or guide that took the &quot;fear factor&quot; out of buying and using new, and unknown, products. And sometimes it was a detailed &quot;nuts and bolts&quot; technical explanation of a complex software product.</p><p>When I retired I wanted to make the transition from the mundane world of documenting what is <u>exactly</u>, to the challenging world of what might be - with no limits. I have written a series of Owen Stanley books and a trilogy titled, <em>Saving Armont</em>. Those were my first steps in this new world of lies and deceit where nothing is true or real. That, of course, is what fiction is - made up stories - sometimes called lies. I&#39;ve found its far more fun than the boring truth about what a particular circuit does when designing a cellphone or any of the other truths found in the 15,000+ pages of technical documentation that I have written.</p>