ABOUT THIS AND THAT

About the Book

This brief announcement is to reveal the first public showing of my collected short stories. Until recently, they were gathering dust balls in my library. They cover different subjects from the past 80-years. Some men whittle on cedar sticks but, I am weird, I write short stories and novels. At the age of ten, our author began writing articles for the Hazard Daily Herald of Hazard, Kentucky and he hasn’t stopped since that time. His following continues to support his creative compositions and he lives in Pearland, TX where he generates his stories, books and breathes bad air.

About the Author

Charles Hays was born in Hazard, Kentucky in 1932. He grew up in the Appalachian Mountains and was reared by his parents, Courtney Kash Hays and Sallie Anne Hays. Courtney Hays was a Coal Tower Engineer for the L&N Railroad and Sallie Hays was a graduate of Lees College as an accredited school teacher. Hays attended the Hazard City School System at the time when it was rated was rated as one of the top ten educational organizations in the State of Kentucky. His final education was at the University of Kentucky where he earned three degrees in Metallurgical Engineering, BS, MS, and PhD. His minor was in Bioengineering and Statistics. Charles spent three years in the US Army; a year in Virginia, a year in Germany and a year in France. His duty was to help make certain that the Great War was finally over and that occasional uprisings by the Nazis were properly subdued. He played one baseball season while in France where his team became the League Champion at Ingrandes, France. Later, he taught at three major universities as an Associate Professor for the University of Kentucky, Texas A&M University and The University of Houston. He has more than 100 refereed papers, patents and presentations. For five years, he was Editor-in-Chief for an adjudicated scientific magazine entitled, ‘Metallography – An International Journal. His consulting company, Hays Metallurgical, has consulted for all major oil and Gas Companies in Houston and abroad, primarily, for the North Sea Arena. At one time, he was considered to be the highest paid consultant in the Nation. As a result, he became an Interna-tionally known expert on oil and gas problems. Dr. Hays has strung columns, operated a linotype machine, run print jobs, and proof read galley slugs for the Hazard Daily Herald. When he was six, his Mother bought him a 1929 Remington portable typewriter. And, between the years of 8-to-18, he wrote stories, covered the local news and wrote about the Perry County Courtroom proceedings. On a higher level of Journalism, Charles has strung columns, written for magazines and published books. When we asked him what his greatest engineering achievement was, he said that it occurred at NASA-Huntsville when the Saturn V First Stage Missile had severe cracking problems. He was personally responsible for the solution of that problem. And, experts say that the Moon Project would have failed without his wise input. At this time, Charles is retired and he lives in Pearland, Texas where he continues to write his books and stories.