Me doing my history thing. Giving a public lecture about the death of the Romanov family at the library in Deer Park, Texas. I think it was the summer of 2017.
I went into the fire service as a young man and spent 15 years as a firefighter and then an arson investigator before an injury forced my early retirement. Along the way I picked up a BA and an MA in History, and more recently, an MS in Criminal Justice. I experienced quite a bit on the job; some good and some bad. I saw a thousand tragedies play out in front of me. But a career in public safety is also akin to having a front row seat at the Theater of the Absurd. I have stories so crazy that you’d swear they were fiction……but they aren’t.
I’m an old leatherhead. This is my leather Cairns New Yorker helmet that I wore on many a fire scene.
I’ve taught community college history courses part time since 2004. I started doing this while I was still on the job as sort of a side gig. Upon my retirement, I began the seemingly fruitless search for a full time professorship. In the spring of 2018, I took a step forward and accepted a temporary full time position. No doubt against their better judgement, they made me regular full time once the spring semester ended.
An office with a view…..of train tracks and a parking lot!
My interests in history are varied and they are also the same as my writing interests. The World Wars and the American Civil War are my biggest passions, other than cats. I’m also deeply fascinated by Imperial Russia and the Russian Revolution, and as part of that, Russian literature. If I could go back to school and get a PhD, it would be in Russian Lit. I have published one World War Two novel . In November of 2019, I finished my second novel Molly’s Song which concerns the fortunes of a young Irish woman who immigrates to New York City during the Civil War. It will be released by Fireship Press on July 29, 2021. As Molly’s Song is the first book in a series, I’m currently writing the sequel tentatively titled Molly’s War. It will be followed by Molly’s Return. After that, if God’s willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll write the epic Russian Revolution novel that presently exists only in my head.
Anastasia Colleen Hutchison (you can follow her on Facebook) loves to “help” me with my work.
When I’m not in the classroom, or sitting in my office staring at the door and waiting in vain for a student to visit or a train to pass by, I’m at home watching classic movies with Anastasia, or listening to a Red Sox game on the satellite radio. She prefers shows with horses and cowboys. I love music, movies, and fashion from the 1940s. And I’m a sucker for epic historical dramas, especially Russian ones. I’m married to a hot redhead. We live in a house built in 1932 a few blocks from Galveston Bay. In addition to Anastasia, we have four other cats and my personal library of around 2500 books, at last count.
Lucky indeed is a man married to a redhead.
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The closest I ever got to being in the firefighter calendar was this photo shoot upon the release of my book.
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All views expressed herein are mine, and I do not speak for or on behalf of any past, present, or future employer.
Note that Lee Hutch is my nom de guerre/plume.
Yours truly in the Summer of 2002.
Ghosts of the Past 