Charles Ray

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About Charles Ray
I've been writing fiction since my teens, having won a national short story writing contest sponsored by a Sunday school magazine. During the 1960s I wrote poetry for the European edition of Stars and Stripes, and have done articles, reviews, cartoons, and photography for a number of publications in Asia, Africa, and the U.S. I write in several genres, mystery, fantasy, urban fantasy, and humor, in addition to non-fiction; but, my favorite is mystery.
I wrote a book on leadership, Things I Learned from my Grandmother about Leadership and Life, in 2008, the second edition of which was published in 2017, and which continues to enjoy modest sales but a growing reputation on three continents. In 2009, I went back to my first love, fiction, with Color Me Dead, the first in my Al Pennyback mystery series.
I was editorial cartoonist for the Spring Lake (NC) News from 1977 to 1981, and had a regular cartoon page and did cover art for the now defunct Buffalo magazine, a publication geared to showcasing the contribution of soldiers of color in US history.
I began the Al Pennyback mystery series from a desire to see stories about Washington, DC, my adopted home, that focused on the ordinary people rather than spies, lobbyists, and politicians.
I write for a number of Internet sites; I was a featured travel contributor on Yahoo Voices from 2010 to 2012 until the featured contributor program was terminated, and am the diplomatic correspondent for asnycnowradio, an Internet radio station based in New York. My own blogs can be viewed at http://charlesaray.blogspot.com and I blog occasionally at http://www.redroom.com/author/charles-a-ray. In late 2017, after the success of my fictionalized account of the life of Bass Reeves, the first African-American deputy US marshal west of the Mississippi, I began writing westerns for Outlaws Publishing and Dusty Saddle Publishing. My westerns are now my top selling books, making me--I suppose--a western author who writes in other genres as well.
I still write poetry from time to time, and have appeared in a number of anthologies.
I've recently begun experimenting with making short videos. They can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/Charlieray45?feature=guide.
You can also check out my books on my author page at http://charlesray-author.com
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Blog postQBG_Tilted Tiara
The one thing you have to give to the GOP, they are well organized, and their messages no matter how toxic are specific and consistent. They have spent the past fifty years building towards this pivotal point in time. Half the states are controlled by maniac legislatures and governors intent on rolling their states back to the days of Jim Crow and women’s subjection, never mind more than half their constituents disagree with their policies. Those at the top both elect2 days ago Read more -
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Blog postChief Writing Wolf
“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.”
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, On Life and Essays on Religion
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Blog postOriginally published by FPRI: Cameroon: Africa’s Unseen Crisis - Foreign Policy Research Institute (fpri.org)
Cameroon: Africa's Unseen Crisis
by Charles A. Ray and Hermann A. Ndofor
The international community has fallen asleep at the wheel when it comes to the crisis in Cameroon. Brutal killings burned villages and hundreds of thousands of displaced people – and the reaction is a deafening silence.
–Jan Egeland, Secretary General2 weeks ago Read more -
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Blog postThe central theme of the first book that I wrote on leadership, Things I Learned from My Grandmother About Leadership and Life, was that principles of leadership are not necessarily learned in formal schools. I stressed that most of the leadership training I received after joining the army merely reinforced the principles taught to me by my grandmother, a woman with limited formal education but tons of native wisdom. What I neglected to mention in that book, though, is that life skills and ef1 month ago Read more
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Blog postGaylene B. Corben’s A Date to Die For is a well crafted mystery about two police detectives, Joe Patterson and Tessa Mariani, on the trail of a serial killer who is using a dating site to lure his victims, young, attractive women, to their doom. The killer leaves a taunting note and a white rose with each victim, and our two detectives find themselves racing the clock after three kills and one near kill, while at the same time dealing with the demons in their own lives.
&n1 month ago Read more -
Blog postHeartland Insurance Company and its founder, Jared Finch, have a unique business model. They buy the insurance policies of elderly people and in exchange for becoming the beneficiary, pay out money to the insured. The problem is that Finch is one of those people for whom money is everything and no amount he earns is ever enough. He has found a way, a diabolical way, to make sure he is getting more money than he’s paying out. People are dying soon after he buys their policies, sooner than any2 months ago Read more
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Blog postI was honored to be the first guest on Peter Alan Turner’s ‘Dusty Saddle Roundup’ podcast. Go to this line to listen: http://charlesray-author.com/index.php/2022/04/04/dusty-saddle-roundup/
2 months ago Read more -
Blog postI was honored to be the first author featured on Peter Alan Turner's Dusty Saddle Roundup. You can listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1967405/10368596
2 months ago Read more -
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Blog postExpedition Overlanding Nomadic Adventures
Image captured by the author My life’s journey crossed significant bridges to become a college student, a military soldier, a husband, and a father.
I committed to a 25-year career that led me to my retirement bridge, crossing my abyss of excitement, fears, unknown possibilities, and imaginative opportunities of an uncharted world.
Other than consuming self-help retirement novels, I had no one individual who inspired or shaped2 months ago Read more -
Blog postI was honored to have the Black History Month 2022 exhibit at the consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam named for me. My only regret is that I was unable to join them in person.2 months ago Read more
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Titles By Charles Ray
The twenty-seventh book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray!
Caleb reminisces as he tells Flora the story of how he came to be called Black Bear. After the murder of his parents and the destruction of New Canaan, young Caleb flees for his life and is found wandering on the prairie by a band of Ho-Chunk hunters who take him back to their village. After a while, they press him to adopt an Indian name, but he doesn’t know the customs so is unable to choose an appropriate one. Then, while hunting with his friends Lame Deer and Bright Eagle, he has an encounter that reveals his totem spirit and the only name that fits him.
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The twenty-sixth book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray!
Caleb is hired by Jackson Monroe, an official from Washington, to scout a trail to Yellowstone National Park and accompany him on a recon mission of the park in preparation for a visit by none other than the president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur. This will not, however, be a vacation, despite the president’s love of fishing. Local businessmen and speculators as well as some of the visitors are despoiling and destroying the park and General Philip Sheridan, Monroe’s boss, wants to show the damage to the president in hopes that he’ll pressure congress to provide the necessary funding to properly manage the parks and preserve them for future generations.
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The locals suspect Enrico of the deaths of the humans but Hoby refuses to believe it, first, because Enrico is his friend, and he’s loyal to his friends, and secondly, because he doesn’t think that a human could have inflicted the damage he saw on the bodies, especially the cattle.
Hoby wonders what he’s got plaguing his town, and Enrico remembers a secret that might hold the key. But can he get anyone to believe him?
The twenty-fifth book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray!
Their first hunting trip having been cut short by a rebellious officer causing havoc in the countryside, a few months later, Caleb and Flora decide to give it another try. They travel north to the open, big sky country of Wyoming for a change of scenery. They find an idyllic spot that seems perfect until the sound of gunfire disrupts their tranquility.
They find themselves in the middle of a one-sided conflict between a greed rancher who has a gang of hired guns and local farmers who are disorganized and feel defenseless. Caleb and Flora throw their lot in with the farmers and convince them to take the fight to the rancher and his hired thugs.
The outcome of the fight is in doubt but Caleb never wavers, convinced that right always wins in the end.
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The twenty-third book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray and Laura Strickland!
When bounty hunter Irine Wicklow, known as Wolverine, takes Eli Unger to jail and collects the bounty on him, his three brothers come after her seeking revenge. Trapped in a gully, she thinks she and her mare, Jezebel, are done for until Caleb Johnson, who recently left the tribe he’d been living with since the murder of his parents, comes along and intervenes. Rine and Caleb travel together to Twin Forks, Idaho, and their mutual desire for justice throw them together to bring the rest of the Ungers to justice.
There’s just one problem; Rine is pretending to be a man and is willing to kill to protect that secret. What if this young mountain man, as decent as Rine thinks he is, should discover her secret? A double dose of tension when Rine is injured, passes out from loss of blood and Caleb, in the process of saving her life, does discover that Wolverine is actually a woman.
Who is more dangerous: the Unger brothers who are after Rine and now want Caleb dead as well, or Rine if she finds out that Caleb has learned her true identify?
The twenty-second book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray and Harvey Wood!
Three drifters ride into Bear Creek. They rob the bank and kill the teller. Caleb volunteers to track them down and bring them back for trial. The three had previously robbed a bank in Carson City and bounty hunter Logan Hanson is on their trail as well. When he and Caleb meet and discover they’re after the same three men, they clash. Logan wants his bounty, but Caleb wants justice for the murdered man.
Two strong-willed, stubborn men face off against each other before they can even begin to hunt the three outlaws.
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The twenty-fourth book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray!
Caleb and Flora decided to go to the mountains for a few weeks of hunting. But they run into a maniacal former rebel colonel who has plans to raise an army in the mountains and establish his own country. When Caleb stumbles upon the colonel’s encampment he becomes a target for destruction. The race is on. Caleb and Flora must outrun the colonel and his men and warn the army.
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Marine biologist Julia Hargety and her colleagues are on board an ocean research vessel when they receive a distress call from a small yacht—a call that is abruptly terminated. Obeying the rules of the sea, they go to the aid of the yacht, and find nothing but a deck awash in blood and a few scattered body parts. They report their findings but are at a loss as to what could have caused such devastation. Then, there are more unexplained deaths and Julia begins to realize that they are dealing with something that can’t be explained by science.
The twenty-first book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray!
When a gang of outlaws have plans to open a brothel in Bear Creek to tempt locals and to sell them opium in the bargain, Caleb is determined to stop them. There are six hoodlums but Caleb has Snuffy, the brown bear he and his wife adopted as a cub, which puts the odds decidedly in his favor. In the shadow of the mountains, Caleb and Snuffy fight to save the town.
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The nineteenth book in the Mountain Life Western Adventure series from Charles Ray!
Two men show up at Caleb’s cabin wanting to hire him as a guide. They tell him that they’re scientists doing research on fossils in the southern part of Colorado, an area near the Ute Indian reservation. Caleb agrees, but not long after arriving in the area he begins to notice strange behavior which rouses his suspicions of their true motives.
When he learns their true objective for being in this particular area he must take quick action to avoid possible conflict with the Indians who don’t take kindly to people trespassing on their land.
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When a swindler bilks people out of money in Calabash Crossing, the sheriff asks Rusty to track him down. He follows the man to Nevada where he encounters Lincoln Croft, a range detective, parttime bounty hunter, who is after the same man for swindling people in his hometown of Sweetwater, Nevada. They team up and track him to Virginia City where he’s hooked up with an outlaw gang for protection.
How do two men get a confidence man out of the clutches of nine armed outlaws? You use their own tricks against them—or so Rusty reckons. But he and Lincoln play a dangerous game with their lives as the stakes.
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