Ray Hoy

Ray Hoy has been a professional writer, editor, and publisher for five decades. Twenty years of that time was spent as a casino marketing executive working with major properties such as Caesars Tahoe, Wayne Newton Gaming, and others. He specialized in opening both land-based and river and ocean-going casino boats.

Ray retired from the "casino wars" in 1998 to devote full time to his publishing business, The Fiction Works (one of the five original ePublishers on the Internet, founded in 1997). The company also produces a line of paperback and audiobook titles. Ray stays in touch with his 115 contracted authors, editors, and illustrators via telephone, Skype, and e-mail.

The Fiction Works is situated in the heart of Alaska's beautiful and wild interior, where it's still possible to actually breathe air you can't see. As Ray puts it, "No smog, no traffic, no worries."

But publishers are writers, too. Ray sold his first freelance article when he was just 16 years old. Now, at 78, he looks back with great satisfaction at the hundreds of magazine articles, numerous screenplays, and the half-dozen novels he has authored. He is also the author of the Jack Frost Thrillers, with three in the series to date: "The Vegas Factor" (second edition, with new cover, originally titled "Early Frost"), "A Proper Time to Die" (second edition with new cover, originally titled "Bitter Frost"), and "Nightmare in Neon" (with six more in the production queue).

In addition to Ray's casino career, he has another connection to Nevada--a more sinister one. He is one of those so-called "Atomic Soldiers" from the 50's. While serving in the Signal Corps, his unit was sent to Camp Desert Rock, Nevada to provide communications for a series of atmospheric atomic bomb tests. While stationed there with 5,000 fellow servicemen, he observed a number of "shots" (as the military loved to call them), up close and personal. Today the number of survivors is down to 500 or so, and most of those men died horribly. However, to date Ray reports that he is still healthy, happy, and going strong, so he considers himself blessed.

Ray wrote a book about his atomic experiences titled, "Letters from Under the Mushroom Cloud" and he is happy to report that the book was accepted for permanent display at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas.

In Ray's own words, "I love what I'm doing. Life is good."