C.J. Petit
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C.J. Petit

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In 2016, I was already an old, 66-year-old geezer when I sat in front of my computer just before Christmas and started writing Rock Creek. I had no intention of letting anyone read it. The reason for even starting the book was just to keep my brain from turning into mush. I found that I enjoyed creating the characters then letting them follow the plot, so when I finished Rock Creek a few days later, I started a new book. I’d written three or four before my daughter ‘suggested’ that I publish them on Amazon. I knew better than to disregard her gentle persuasion, so I uploaded them onto Amazon’s servers. But because I didn’t expect anyone to read them, I didn’t edit them very well. There were many reasons why I didn’t believe that anyone to spend 99 cents for one of my books. I knew that there were hundreds of thousands of independent authors on Amazon and I’d chose to write Westerns, which is a dying genre. As I only wrote because I found it enjoyable and satisfying, I didn’t advertise or promote my books, either. I just kept writing and by the end of 2017, I had 33 on Amazon. The stories kept popping into my head, and a few days after I put this updated biography on- line, I'll publish #88. That’s a lot of words, folks. But I am slowing down, so I don’t think I’ll reach an even hundred. Anyway, that’s my life since I started writing, and I suppose I should fill in some of the first 66 years. I’ll keep it short. I was born in Providence, Rhode Island in February of 1950. I grew up a few miles south of Providence in Warwick. I had one older brother, two younger brothers and my sister was the youngest of my siblings. I attended Catholic schools and even went to the seminary to start my high school education, but that didn’t last long. There was nothing unusual about my childhood. I was just another kid who flowed along with the rest of the crowd as we passed from class to class until we were spewed into the real world. I enlisted the Air Force in October of ’68 and, against my wishes, they made me a medic. I was an x-ray technician for twelve years before I was commissioned in December of ‘80. I was stationed at Offutt AFB south of Omaha when I retired as a major in December of ’93. We bought a house, and I worked for the City of Bellevue as a computer geek for 17 years. I was divorced from my first wife after eleven years of marriage and two children. I married my Elf in August of ’83 and have two children. In September of 1995, I was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in my throat and lymph glands. A course of intense radiation therapy eliminated the tumors but also caused a significant amount of damage to the nearby healthy tissue. The side effects continued to impact my health, and I was placed on disability in 2011. My long downslide is ongoing, and I can no longer eat, drink or talk. I was surprised that I didn’t miss eating, but not being able to talk is really annoying. I can only violently gesture to the television when I’m watching the news. Despite those limitations and some other odd ones, I still consider myself a very lucky person. It’s not because of the number of books I’ve written or sold. It’s for the same reason that all of my main characters fall in love then share their love the rest of their lives. It’s because of my Elf. [Christopher J. Petit, who wrote under the name of C.J. Petit, died on October 7, 2024 in Bellevue, Nebraska. He was an amazing man -- who proudly served his country for 25 years in the United States Air Force, who was a 29-year survivor of stage IV head and neck cancer, and who wrote and published 96 full-length Western novels during the final eight years of his life. He is dearly missed by his family, friends, and countless fans who came to know and love him through his stories.]
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