DECATUR - Let's see. There's baker, linguist, spy, computer expert and builder, world traveler, retiree and now author - and those are just a few of the hats which George L. Snyder of Decatur has worn and wears.

"One Man's Elephant" is Snyder's exploration of his faith, which he bills as a serious but humorous approach. To him, it reads easily because he personally objects to authors whose command of the English language gets in the way of what they are trying to say.

Q: Elephant? Not a lot of them in Central Illinois so can you tell us the origin of the title?

The title has its origins in the relating of the story of the six blind men who "see" an elephant, each determining what they are encountering by where they touch the animal. Like the man who feels the elephant trunk and thinks he's touching a snake.

For a description, Snyder referred to his Web site where it says:

"When we try to understand God, we are at a greater disadvantage than these blind men. It is much easier for one of these blind men to comprehend the total elephant than it is for the most brilliant human mind to comprehend God. I am one blind man attempting to understand the elephant. You too are blind. Will you accompany me on my journey?"

Q: How did a computer guy come to writing a book?

Snyder, who has lived in Decatur since 1988, was leaving church one day, talking with his associate pastor.

"She suggested that I write these ideas down. This is the result of that."

It wasn't, however, quite that simple. He was in the process for about 10 years.

"At first, I just sorta typed it up," he said.

Then realizing he had enough for a book, he began that adding/subtracting/rearranging process, also known as editing.

"It was probably in 2002 when it got to its current state. In the process of retiring, I finally managed to find a publisher for my book which had been ready for about five years."

Q: Yes, Decatur is home but hasn't your journey taken you - as the clich© says - far and wide?

Considering he's lived in Taiwan, Venezuela, Iceland, Germany, among other places, the answer would have to be yes. Part of his travels were related to a career in the United States Air Force - where they discovered his affinity for languages - and to a computer career which lead him to Decatur and ultimately to his retirement from what is now Decatur Computers Inc.

"I couldn't have done that because I wasn't there," said Snyder, joking about his days as a Russian translator for the Air Force, when they sent him behind the Iron Curtain.

"I kid a lot about it now," he said. "Most everything I did has been declassified by now."

But he does have a good story involving a translation he made and John F. Kennedy. A radar reflection off a weather inversion somewhere between Moscow and Leningrad (Russia) caused a stir for both Americans and the Russians, he remembered. It was his translation, noting that is was a radar reflection and nothing else, that got into President Kennedy's hands within 3½ minutes after the translation had been completed.

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

421-6976.

About the book

TITLE: "One Man's Elephant: An Exploration of Faith" by George L. Snyder

TYPE: paperback, 168 pages

ISBN-10: 1419672916

ISBN-13: 978-1419672910

PUBLISHER: BookSurge Publishing (July 31, 2007)

LIST PRICE: $15.99

AVAILABLE: booksurge.com or

1-866-308-6235; amazon.com;

barnesandnoble.com

Writers to share their process at Dec. 5 program

DECATUR - Previous Bookmark column subject, J. D. Webb, and today's author George L. Snyder are presenting "Pitfalls of Publishing Through the Eyes of the Published" in the Decatur Public Library Madden Auditorium at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5.

The pair will discuss their own process of brainstorming, writing and publishing and pass along hints, laced with humor.

Snyder is the author of "One Man's Elephant" and Webb has authored "Shepherd's Pie," "Moon Over Chicago" and "Her Name is Mommy."