Gary P. West has simple criteria when it comes to writing books. "I only take on a project that I will enjoy writing about and I only write about something I think people will enjoy reading," he says. West grew up in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and attended Western Kentucky University before graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1967 with a journalism degree. At U.K. he was a daily sports editor for the Kentucky Kernel. Throughout his extensive career he has served as executive director of the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation at Western Kentucky University, provided color commentary for Wes Strader on the Hilltopper Basketball Network, and served as executive director of the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. He retired from there in 2006 to devote more time to his writing. He is a freelance writer for several magazines in addition to writing a syndicated newspaper travel column, Out & About...Kentucky Style, for several papers across the state. Gary is in demand as a speaker and for book signings throughout Kentucky. This is his seventeenth book. Gary and his wife, Deborah, live in Bowling Green, Kentucky.