
Official Website of Writer
Seeking an Agent for my latest book
"The Threefer Mystery"
Mystery, humor, and romance combine to drive this
Pittsburgh-based murder mystery


About me
My first inspiration to write came from a 12th grade creative writing class in Pittsburgh, PA. Poetry, plus teenage angst, morphed into a love of songwriting which continues to this day. Music and playing gigs got me through Penn State and a few years of being a full-time musician. I’ve been a major player in recording five albums, including fourteen of my songs, with the most recent CD in 2016. https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hugheskidderandrounds
Some of my early experiences working as a child abuse investigator and caseworker in youth and family services left story threads rumbling in my head, as did being a romantic at heart, an ongoing singer-songwriter, an avid reader and movie lover. Later, working in the video industry and writing a Video Guy movie review column, well, this leads to a lot of ideas.
I’ve melded several experiences into short-stories. “Another Special One” takes off from my social service years, and “Gemstone in the Rubble” was in response to a 1994 picture of a Chechen soldier and a piano in LIFE Magazine. Both stories won top prize in Boston area writing contests.
Buoyed by the success of, and positive critical response to these two stories – and, most recently by a lot of new-found time to write – I’ve written a full-length book, “The Threefer Mystery” a crime novel, a reflection on the haunting death of a caseworker's client, that evolved into a murder mystery with romance and humor. I am currently shopping this to literary agents, as I work on another novel and lots of short stories!
Retirement from the 40-hour work a day world in Boston to 7-years on a 7-acre plot in the Alleghany Highlands of Virginia* with my beloved bride, the Divine Ms. C, gave me lots of inspiration, and now we're seeing what Northern VA has to offer! We have a blended family of four creative, motivated Millennials and two grand kitties. We try to “goof on” our children at every opportunity…just to keep them on their toes!
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* Those are Virginia mountains in the page background! Thanks to the magnificent photographer, Chuck Almarez, for allowing use of this photo.
You can find more of his work at: http://www.fireandlightgallery.com/#/page/home/
Video guy
music guy
My first inspiration to write came from a 12th grade creative writing class in Pittsburgh, PA. Poetry, plus teenage angst, morphed into a love of songwriting which continues to this day. Music and playing gigs got me through Penn State University - plus a few years of being lucky enough to be a full-time musician.
I’ve been a major player in recording 5 albums that included 14 of my songs. "The School House Project" was recorded in 2016 inside the old one-room Rock Hill School in Linden Hall, PA. Amazing acoustics! My songs - Why Wasn't Love Enough, No Suspenders, Time and Time Again, and Til the Sun Gets Here - along with the whole CD, can be sampled, purchased or downloaded at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/hugheskidderandrounds
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