Rick A. Waters

I'm a disabled Vietnam Veteran who held a Top Secret Cryptographic Special Intelligence security clearance. In the winter of 1978, I was offered a position in England by the National Security Agency but did not accept because the high-speed Morse code I copied in the Army Security Agency had rewired my brain causing a variety of symptoms and I did not want any further damage.

I had a varied career in computers after moving to Houston in 1978. I began working on mainframe computers for oil and gas companies including Western Geophysical and a French firm Companie Generale Geophysique. During the early eighties, I worked as an IT consultant for high profile law firms and as a computer programmer for Compuniques, Inc. In 1986, I worked for the University of Texas Health Science Center on a smoking cessation research project where I delivered below perception electrical stimulation through electrodes on the ears of our test subjects. When the technology was sold to a Toronto company, I went to work for IBM space division in Clear Lake, TX. When IBM sold this division, I became co-owner of Jennifer's- a beauty salon in Nassau Bay, TX catering mainly to NASA employees.

During the early 80's and beyond I wrote several books including a cartoon book entitled "Smoketoons" about stopping smoking. The main problem I found in writing, working fulltime and maintaining a relationship was a common one- not enough hours in the day. Since 2014, I have been writing fulltime.