John R. Taylor

John Taylor was raised in Oakland, California, and showed enough promise as a baseball player that the New York Yankees signed him to play in the minor leagues in 1961-62, until the ball club discovered he couldn't hit a curve ball and strongly "suggested" he find another line of work. A three year stint in the Army followed, and in 1965 he joined 4,000 other paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division for their tour of duty in Vietnam. After being shot at by strangers he held no ill-will against, he was discharged and went to college on the G.I. Bill. Somehow he managed to fool a few professors and graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from Sacramento State College, whereupon he left the hallowed halls of academia and became a police officer, first with the City of San Leandro in 1971, and then with the City of Oakland in 1975. Several thousand incredible policing adventures later, he retired from OPD in 2002 and breathed a welcome sigh of relief as he eased into his Golden Years. But infinite boredom soon inspired John to try his hand at writing fiction. His first novel, Days on the Beach, was awarded first prize in the Cop Tales Contest sponsored by Oak Tree Press in 2009, and his second novel, Land of a Thousand Dances, was awarded second prize in a 2010 contest sponsored by South West Writers. Two more novels, Only in Berserkeley and Chasing the Yankee Dream, followed, and John is currently awaiting the publication of his fifth novel, OIS: Officer Involved Shooting, in March, 2016.