About this Site
This web site is primarily about me, Russell Dyer. I'm a writer and I use this site to promote my writing activities. This includes fiction and non-fiction writing and editing. The site also includes photographs that I've taken in my travels around the world. These trips are sometimes related to my technical writing work, and they often influence my fiction writing. And all of these factors—my background, my work, and my travel, and so forth—influence what I muse about on this site.
About Russell
My full name is Russell Joseph Thadeus Dyer. I was born in New Orleans and lived most of my life there, but now live in Milan, Italy. My father was Brittish and Saxon in descent. He was a major in the Louisiana Army National Guard and a Lieutenant for the New Orleans Police Department, head of the Intelligence Division. He died of cancer when I was only three years old. My mother, of Sicilian descent remarried when I was seven and moved the family to Massachusetts for eight years before returning to New Orleans where she now lives.
As for education, I graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans primarily with a degree in English. I am now working part-time on a Master's degree in English, which I started at University of New Orleans, but later transferred to Southeastern Louisiana University outside of New Orleans in Hammond. As part of my requirements for completing my second degree in English, I am studying the Italian language in Italy.
With regards to employment, I worked for over ten years in the investment business in various roles from a clerk to a broker to a corporate executive. I have also worked in the software business for over ten years with some years overlapping my investment work, beginning in 1981 selling Tandy TRS-80 Model One—the start of microcomputers.
I have published hundreds of articles and a few books about computer software. One of my books was published by the premier computer book publisher O'Reilly Media. It’s in its second edition and has been translated to several languages. As for my fiction work, this field is more competitive and I have not made sufficient time for developing or promoting my writings in this area. However, a few of my shorter pieces can be read on this site (see the short stories tab at the top). Additionally, I have written a humorous novel called In Search of Kafka, which can be purchased on Amazon’s web site. My second novel, Not a Step is nearly finished and should be published this year.
