Ray Beere Johnson II

Ray has had a fascination with words and the English language as far back as he can remember. Interested in all aspects of writing and publishing, he self published a book of poetry in high school. After graduation, he set up a letterpress print shop at a time when technology was moving away from such "outdated" methods.

Later, he was for a time a professional genealogist who particularly enjoyed unraveling the truth behind family legends. The high point of this part of his career was "solving" a murder committed in 1919. After that, he worked for a time on the fringes of social media, finally coming to terms with modern technology. All along, he has been a writer; the written word was and is his first love.

Born legally blind, it took him years to discover he probably fell somewhere on the autism spectrum, although to date he has never been formally diagnosed. This revelation, however, has permanently altered his thinking and outlook on life, and given him a much better understanding of himself.

He still mourns Pollyanna, Adabadu, Patricia, Gandalf, Sir Andrew, and Julius, cats he confidently expects to meet on the far side of the Rainbow Bridge, misses Brendan and Lady Victoria Muffin, kittens he had to find homes for, and still enjoys the company of Tristan and Girlie, Brendan and Muffin's siblings.

In addition to his love of writing, cats, reading, letterpress printing, and genealogy, Ray collects and relies upon fountain pens and is obsessed with various topics, especially the history of World War Two.