It was at the tender age of five that Frank Roderus penned his first story. Naturally, it was a western. And it was truly awful which was, of course, to be expected. Dreadful to everyone except his mother who typed it out, spell-checked it and kept it tacked to the refrigerator until the day she died. According to an interview with Frank, “he never did decide to become a writer, he simply was” with a school teacher grandmother as a guiding force.
As a young adult Frank became a newspaper reporter, under the assumption that books were written by authors and he was most definitely not one. He continued trying to write a book and eventually did it wrong enough to learn how to do it right. His first book, a young adult novel published by Independence Press, was more than thirty years and about 300 books ago. Some of Frank’s books have appeared under his own name with others being published under a variety of pseudonyms.
As a journalist, the Colorado Press Association awarded Frank Roderus their highest award, the Sweepstakes Award, for the best news story of 1980, and the Western Writers of America has twice named Frank the recipient of their prestigious Spur Award. Besides 24 independent novels, Frank wrote three separate series including “The Heller Thriller” series, the “Billy Ray” series and the “Bowen and Baile” series.
On the anniversary of his 30th year of writing full time he sat down for an interview and said, “I still love every minute of doing it. I am truly blessed to be able to make a living doing what I love so very much to. Did I mention how very blessed I am? Believe it.”
Frank Roderus died at the age of 73 in December 2015.
Novels
Billy Ray and The Good News, 2015- More Info | Purchase
Billy Ray and The Forty Days, 2015 – More Info | Purchase
The Name is Hart, 2014 – More Info | Purchase
Rafe, 2014 – More Info | Purchase