NEWS RELEASE
Updated Sept. 24, 2020
Career Journalist Turns Novelist
R. LeRoy Green
is a career journalist turned fiction writer who has
just published a compelling debut novel entitled The Zealot. Book one of The Anvil Trilogy,
The Zealot is a powerful
psychological drama—a story of faith challenged.
Born Randall LeRoy Green (the middle name rhymes with deploy), he was raised in Idaho and Utah, has lived in eight different states from Virginia to California, and has traveled to all 50, often with a kayak on top of his truck and always with a camera and a notebook close at hand.
The son of two published authors, Rand (as he is best known to his friends) learned to read at age four and has had an avid interest in books and in writing throughout his life. He has kept a journal since grade school. He published his first poem at age twelve, started a novel (never submitted for publication) at age fourteen, began publishing articles in national magazines at age nineteen, and co-authored a best selling non-fiction book during his fist semester in college.
In his early life, he also worked as a farm hand, a construction worker, a printing press operator, a lab assistant in a university biochemistry lab, and stock manager for a mail-order book club. After high school, he served in the United States Army and then as a missionary before attending college.
The decision to make writing a career was not an easy one for him, as he also had a passion for both music and science. He learned to play the piano at age five, began composing music at age eight, and played cello in the Utah Youth Symphony at age sixteen. On the other hand, he read graduate-level physics and chemistry textbooks for pleasure while still in high school and, with his father's blessing, converted one side of the garage into a chem lab. (And no, he didn't blow up the house.)
On top of all that, he found time to go hiking, camping, and river running at every opportunity and to become a third-generation Eagle Scout.
Rand began his university studies as a chemistry major with the expectation of pursuing graduate work in biochemical research, but his breadth of interests motivated him to change career paths: as a writer, he could explore any field or topic that caught his fancy. He ultimately earned his BA in history at Brigham Young University with minors in English and journalism. (He was raised a Mormon but is now a nondenominational Christian.) He did post-graduate work at the University of Utah
Rand became a reporter for a daily newspaper and an editor for an educational publisher while still an undergraduate. Then he spent some time as a tech writer for a research institute before being hired as assistant editor for a regional magazine publisher. Over the years, he has held positions of associate editor, managing editor, executive western editor, editor, and publisher for various consumer and trade publications and has freelanced for many others. In all, he has published more than 12,000 articles (the equivalent of about eighty 300-page books) on a wide variety of subjects in print publications-and thousands more for the internet.
As if that were not enough to keep him busy, doing business as Rand Green Communications, Rand has also edited books, academic papers, and newsletters, written press releases, designed brochures and sales literature, developed marketing plans and ad campaigns, built websites, and handled a wide variety of photo assignments for a diverse clientele. His clients ranged from shopping center developers to software developers, from architectural firms to airlines, from churches to government agencies, from industrial equipment manufacturers to restaurateurs, from educational institutions to medical care facilities, from book publishers to travel study institutes.
All of that left little time for writing fiction, but it was all grist for the creative mill. The abundance of rich and
varied life experiences kept Rand's head swimming with ideas—ideas for plots, characters, story lines, themes, and
settings for an ever-expanding roster of novels that begged to be written. He filled notebook after notebook with
synopses and outlines, and the desire to expand those rudimentary beginnings into finished manuscripts and see them
in print burned within him with ever-increasing intensity, until ...
Finally, he took the bold step. He backed away from the crowded schedule of editorial deadlines and the relentless effort to surpass client expectations that had engrossed him for five decades. He published a small book of poetry entitled Soul Tremors, and he now devotes the majority of his time and energy to writing novels. The Zealot, recently released by Quinpinnacles Press, is his first published novel. His second, a faith-based sci-fi novel entitled The Caverns of Casnitania, book one of the Aspirian Trilogy, will be out shortly, and he is currently working on a sequel to The Zealot, to be called The Magnesium Ribbon. He is also launching a new series of short, fast-paced political intrigue novels called Swamp Demons, featuring investigative journalist Flint Fallon. The first volume in the series is entitled Into the Slime.
A devoted Christian and a passionate American patriot, Rand writes faith fiction as R. LeRoy Green, poetry and religious nonfiction as Randall L. Green, and other nonfiction as Rand Green.
The stories he tells in his novels are as rich and varied as his life has been, and they will fall into assorted genres; some may even defy traditional classification. But what they will all share in common is that their themes will be rooted in principles of faith and freedom.
Rand now lives in rural Idaho with his lovely wife JoAnne, who puts up with his puns and sometimes even laughs at them, and with whom he shares a passion for gardening, good food, great books, inspiring music, and old movies.
