Wilfred Bereswill

In Wilfred’s very early years, books were his escape from the monotonous rows of closely-spaced brick homes in south St. Louis City. A book he still remembers reading over and over again was Eleanor Cameron’s The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. He moved on to science fiction and got hooked on the original Star Trek series novels, before reading The Stand by Stephen King. The Stand was the book that hooked him on horrors for quite some time. Tom Clancy converted Wilfred to the thriller genre in the early ‘90s. He still remember reading Clear and Present Danger, enthralled by Clancy’s descriptions of the weaponry, only to see the very same high tech devices used in the Gulf War just weeks after reading about them. He marveled at Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Congo and Airframe and enjoyed Robin Cook’s medical thrillers and Grisham’s legal thrillers.

Wilfred took a job right out of high school. After a summer of running a punch press, he knew factory life wasn’t for him and enrolled in a local Community College to study civil drafting. Having to work his way through college, he snagged a part-time job with the Corps of Engineers, where a man named J. D. Lytle saw some potential in a struggling kid and steered him into the Co-op program, and the civil engineering curriculum at the University of Missouri - Rolla. Although Wilfred thanked J.D. Lytle on many occasions, the man touched his life in a way he could never repay. Graduating from the University of Missouri—Rolla in 1980 as a Civil/Environmental Engineer, he worked in the natural gas industry until 1991. Although he managed engineers, welders, electricians and various construction projects and crews he enjoyed getting out in the field where his experiences played a large part in his first book, A Reason For Dying.

Since 2001, Wilfred has traveled extensively through China; which he describes as a wonderful and fulfilling chapter in his life. He chronicled some of the things he experienced and sent them to his Aunt and Uncle, Mildred and Bob Maguire. They encouraged him to try his hand at writing. Retired college professors, their advice was, “Write what you know.” That was when the plot behind A Reason For Dying was born

Wilfred married his high school sweetheart, Linda, and has three wonderful daughters, Kelly, Kristen, and Kaitlin. He considers Linda his writing partner who takes an active role in discussions about his characters, scenes and settings. In order to bring balance to the estrogen/testosterone levels in the household, he purchased a male Soft-Coated Wheaton Terrier named Frasier. Wilfred says, “It wasn’t long after he arrived that the imbalance was restored with a quick and painless (Ha!) neutering.”