BIO

Writing seriously since 1998, I’ve penned nearly 3,000,000 words. (I specialize in short stories and middle-grade fiction. I’ve also written a ton of poetry and some screenplays and plays. (I studied under professional playwright T. Dianne Anderson while minoring in theater at the University of South Florida, Tampa campus.)

I’ve received six Writers Digest honorable mentions and nine Royal Palm Literary Awards (four for first place). In 2009, I received the president’s award from the Florida Writers Association for assisting other member writers. I’m a lifetime member, regional director for the States of Washington and Nevada, and a board member for the FWA. Having attended dozens of writing conferences, I’ve also presented at four.

Well-versed in The Chicago Manual of Style, I passed a rigid editors’ exam in Feb of 2015. Besides hanging out my editor’s shingle through the Editorial Freelancers Association, I lend my services to the Florida Writers Association’s Editors Helping Writers program, to their RPLA annual writing contest as a judge, and to the development of novel writers in my Reno Writing Clinic designed.

For my fiction writing plans, check out AuthorEOrlando.com.

I hold a master’s degree in computer science education and retired after 28 years of teaching the mentally handicapped and computer applications for at-risk, high school students in Florida.

My wife died in 2011, which led me to the West. I met my current wife, Dodie Orlando, aka Darcie MacKim, in Walla Walla, Washington. We married after moving to Reno, NV in 2013. Three months later, Dodie contracted stage-four, gynecological cancer and beat it by July of 2014. She’s been cancer free since.