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Harry F. Smith
Harry F. Smith grew up in the frozen wilderness of Jersey City, New Jersey and proudly claims to be a born and bred native, but only when it is to his financial advantage to do so....view moreHarry F. Smith grew up in the frozen wilderness of Jersey City, New Jersey and proudly claims to be a born and bred native, but only when it is to his financial advantage to do so.
After a brief career in the Navy stationed at the amphibious base at Little Creek, Virginia as a member of Beachmaster Unit Two, he attended California State University, Chico where he somehow managed to obtain a BS in Mathematics and a Master's in Computer Science. A glutton for punishment, he spent another year at the McCloud Institute of Simulation Sciences as a graduate assistant and was the first person to receive a Certificate of Achievement in Simulation Science from the Institute.
He also ate a lot of ramen noodles and drank many beers during this time.
After graduating from college, Harry needed to pay off his numerous school loans, so he worked as a software engineer on various defense industry projects. Most of them can't be talked about in public forums without filling out massive amounts of paperwork, but believe me, they involved some pretty cool stuff like lasers and bombs and small furry creatures from other planets.
During this time, he authored many boring technical documents and manuals, such as 'A Case Study of Constrained Nonlinear Optimization Methods' and 'A Thousand and One Ways to Properly Use Your Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO)'. None of these ever reached the New York Times Best Sellers list, although he did win a minor award for 'The Most Semicolon Usage in a Government Document.'
Having conquered the exciting world of software engineering, he finally caved into the voices that rattle around in his head as they commanded him to switch from writing computer code to mystery stories that concentrated on living, breathing people and the evil things that are done by them.
After a while, he started his own E-book publishing company, Like A Duck Publishing and wrote his first novel, 'The Chat Room Murders.'
He invented the character of John DelMonico, an ex-Jersey City detective who is recruited by a friend to join the newly formed National Cybercrime Investigation Agency. This was a bit of a stretch since John was quite possibly the most computer illiterate person ever born. Recently divorced form his childhood sweetheart, John moves out to Silicon Valley to start his life anew, taking his prized '66 Mustang to face the harsh San Jose traffic.
Since all good detective stories need at least one beautiful woman, he is teamed up with the gorgeous Terri O'Brien, a red headed, ex-FBI lawyer babe. A native of California, John soon learns that behind her green eyes lurks a fierce Irish temper. Being a Shaolin kung fu master, Terri quickly proves that she can hold her own in the male dominated world of criminal computer investigations.
Eugene Lee, a Chinese-American software engineer / computer nerd extraordinaire, rounds out the team.
John and Terri's exploits have spanned five novels so far. In each one, they manage to defeat the bad guys while they try to deny the building frisson that they feel for each other.
Lately, Harry has finished the latest story in the John DelMonico / Terri O'Brien detective series. Since there was a bit of a cliff hanger in 'The Hunting Club' , he wrote 'Shadow Of The Throwaways' to continue the story. Maybe this will be the one where John and Terri jump each others bones ...
Besides the John DelMonico / Terri O'Brien detective stories, Harry wrote 'The Peaceful Night', a story about a category five hurricane that smashes into Orlando, Florida and forces the people of an exclusive gated community to fend off starvation, a power hungry ex-mafioso don, alligators, a horny but brain dead mutt named Peepers and a psychotic killer who'll do anything to silence the voices in his head until help arrives.
He decided to make this story a FREE download because:
A) He is a kind and generous person.
B) He believes that authors should give something back to their fans.
C) Everybody kept bugging him for a freebie.
Since the statute of limitations for unspeakable past crimes has not yet expired in New Jersey, Harry now lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota year-round so that he can enjoy the snow, ice and freezing cold weather. His interests include listening to esoteric music, perfecting his vast barbecuing skills and devising new ways to scare small children, all the while fighting killer rabbits who are intent on eating the lush green lawn outside of his condo townhouse.view less