Mike Dryden

Biography

Mike Dryden was born in Monroe County, Mississippi in the late forties. He graduated from Amory High School in the sixties and Mississippi State University with a BS in Education. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army and attended Rotary Wing Qualification School. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky as a helicopter pilot and aviation logistic maintenance officer. He left active duty and continued his military career until 1998 when he retired as a Major. He worked in a variety of jobs ranging from test pilot to ad salesman until his retirement. He received a Master of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and is a dual rated instrument commercial pilot. He has worked in both secondary and adult education fields in Alaska for the past fourteen years. He served as public affairs officer for the Alaska Wing Civil Air Patrol, editor of the Alaska CAP Wing Tips magazine and a mission pilot on search and rescue missions. He presently serves on the board of the Older Person Action Group and writes a monthly article on veterans’ health care issues in the Senior Voice newspaper. He also has contributed to the Stars and Stripes Alaska military newspaper on a broad range of subjects. His latest articles include a series on the contributions of the black soldiers during World War ll and the construction of the Alaska Highway. He is a volunteer for the State of Alaska Long-Term Care Ombudsman program where he advocates senior citizens rights residing in elder care facilities. He spends his spare time flying, traveling and writing fiction and non-fiction works.

Smashwords Interview

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I was born in Mississippi in the late 1940s and was 15 years old when the Freedom Summer came to Mississippi. This effort was a voter registration drive to allow the blacks in the South the right to exercise their constitutional right to vote. The year before in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, water hose and dogs were set loose on Blacks marching for their civil rights. The KKK had bombed a Baptist Church and murdered three small Black girls. Times were violent​ in the South in 1964.
When did you first start writing?
I began to write in 1990 on an electric typewriter in South Mississippi on my days off from flying helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico. My first book was a special ops​ helicopter story which still has not seen the light of day.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Mike Dryden online

Books

Monroe County Murder
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 104,630. Language: English. Published: December 11, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Historical » USA, Fiction » African American fiction » Mystery & detective
Colored teenagerTeddy Park planned a trip to Mississippi in 1964. Teddy’s troubles begin when he takes a likening to an attractive white girl living next door to his Auntie. Unknown to Teddy, he is breaking a long-standing social rule concerning mixed race affairs. Adding to this volatile situation was, unknown to Teddy; his love interest was dating a racist psychopath. Will Teddy get home alive?