In order to "share the load" for creating a Homepage, and keep our website active, we have decided to have people volunteer to do a piece each month.  Dan Lutts volunteered to do January (thanks, Dan), We wish him, and all of you, well during this transition to 2022!!!! 

Hi, everyone. A lot’s happened in my life since I graduated from NQHS. After earning a Bachelor’s Degree in history, I earned a Master’s Degree in Roman History from the University of Chicago. Then I taught for ten years at our arch rival, Quincy High School, and ended up as department head for my last three years. I specialized in teaching Advanced Placement History, Archaeology, and World Cultures. Then I was laid off by Proposition 2 1/2.

Remember that I wrote the script for the that stage show during our senior year? Well, I always loved to write. During that time I wrote some science fiction stories and then continued writing fiction, which I never published. After the layoff, I retrained as a technical writer, editor, and production manager and worked for quite a few years in the high tech industry. Eventually, I stopped my creative writing and got involved in other activities: scuba diving, horseback riding, Civil War reenacting, 18^th-century reenacting, and Cowboy Action Shooting (dressing up as cowboys and shooting revolvers, rifles, and shotguns at targets). 

In my mid-50s, I met and married my soul mate, Lisa Simpson, who is a museum professional. Before Lisa, I spent 20 years living in the same apartment. With Lisa, I moved from place to place as she climbed up the museum ladder. She vowed never to do any 18^th-centuiry reenacting, but I persuaded her to try it, and she ended up loving it. But one good turn deserved another. So she gradually eased me into the museum field. In Ticonderoga, NY, while she worked at 18^th-century Fort Ticonderoga, I worked part time at the sister fort, Fort Crown Point. In Wolfeboro, NH, while she worked as the director at the New Hampshire Boat Museum, I worked part time there and also at the Wright Museum of World War II. Currently, she is the director of the Castine Historical Society in Castine, ME—the site of the worst American Naval defeat in US history until World War II—and I still work remotely for the Wright Museum from my home in Maine. 

But COVID changed a lot for everyone. For me, my hours at the Wright were cut to just a few weeks this year creating and editing the spring and fall newsletters. That load of free time let me complete Charm Wars, a Young Adult novel I’d been working on for quite a while. It’s a fantasy story that takes place in a matriarchal society in a world of magic, and is the first of a five-book series. It’s self published, has been professionally edited, and a graphic designer created the cover and my website, danlutts.com The learning curve has been steep. Right now I’m figuring out how to advertise Charm Wars on Amazon, a long and difficult process. A few months ago I mentioned to a published writer friend that my writing and publishing experience has been a steep learning curve. She responded: “You’re right, and I’m still learning.” 

Right now I’m planning to release the second book in the Charm Wars series in 2022. Charm Wars is available as an e-book and a paperback. You can purchase it at Amazon, Barns & Noble, and various e-book stores such as Apple Books and Rakuten Kobo. You also can visit my website at danlutts.com for sneak peeks of the two books and information about the world of Charm Wars.

All in all, life has been good.

Dan Lutts