GILLESPIE - Shane Moore is taking a leap.

As of this week - or at least soon - Moore is resigning his position with the Gillespie Police Department.

"I've turned in my resignation to the police department," said Moore. "As soon as they accept that, I'm going to become a full-time writer.

"If I am going to be successful in writing, I decided to take the leap."

Q: Let's back up. First, tell us something about Shane Moore.

Moore said he grew up on a farm outside of Plainview where things were sometimes rough financially.

"I remember at one point in time, we ate eggs and potatoes for a week," he recalled.

Knowing college would be a challenge because of the expense, he enlisted in the Navy. After completing two tours of duty in Bosnia and doing several different jobs aboard ship, Moore left the Navy and went on to college, graduating with a degree in criminal justice.

Truth be told, Moore may have graduated but he hasn't stopped taking classes. Admitting he is easily bored, he has taken classes "just because."

"A lot of times, I wouldn't even buy the book," he explained because it's easy for him to learn.

As a police officer, Moore earned commendations, and he is, as well, the holder of several records with a semi-professional football team.

Q: And the writing?

Well, he did take some creative writing classes. But he also read a lot of fantasy works. His reading choice may have been selected in part because he was among those playing Dungeons and Dragons, a fantasy role playing game. He even achieved the level of becoming a game referee, the person who outlined the game for the players to solve.

But the writing really started when he was working for the Boone County Sheriff's Office near Rockford, away from family and friends. He was expecting friends to visit one weekend and when circumstances prevented that, he vented by writing a lengthy email story about a rogue thief.

"(My friends) got a kick out of that," he said. "It was horrible writing, but my friends liked it."

Q: Tell us about your novel.

The novel grew from the writing he was doing because, as he put it, "Nothing else was going on."

He had an idea for characters in a book, these twins, one good, one bad. Well, he was not really a bad guy, explained Moore, just sort of a fly-by-night guy. But at least the brothers were in conflict.

"So I started writing 'The Prisoner's Welcome.'

"The book was huge," admitted Moore, when he finished and it seemed to increase even more when friends read over it and suggested changes.

Moore said he has enjoyed the writing process. Sometimes along the way, he used as inspiration for characters some of those he met in his police work.

Q: And the process it took for it to be published and promote your book?

This was the hard part for a variety of reasons. As all new and unpublished authors would agree, breaking into the published ranks is difficult.

"On top of that, I bucked industry standards with a large book (more than 500 pages) making it an expensive gamble. And then I did not write a book that stands alone."

But Moore did find Vantage Press and when they published his book, the company published its first fantasy title as well.

Moore has done some book signings but has also found success in promotion by attending game and fantasy conventions. It was at conventions that he met Billy Tackett, an Ohio artist who has created drawings of a couple of Moore's characters, and where he ran into maskworld.com which is a costume manufacturing site that is working on prototype costumes of some of Moore's characters.

Arlene Mannlein can be reached at amannlein@herald-review.com or at 421-6976.

About the book

TITLE: "A Prisoner's Welcome" by Shane Moore

TYPE: paperback, 553 pages

ISBN-10: 0533153018

ISBN-13: 978-0533153015

PUBLISHER: Vantage Press Inc., December, 2006

LIST PRICE: $14.95

AVAILABLE: amazon.com; barnesandnoble.com; booksamillion.com. Pages for All Ages, Champaign, has limited copies available for mailing.