Roy Casagranda

The last grade Roy completed was the ninth grade. When he dropped out, it was his thirteenth school. He hated school so much he decided to become an educator. He got a GED and a BS in political science and went on to teach high school calculus, algebra, history, physics, and chemistry. Eventually he went back to school for a couple of graduate degrees and now teaches political science at a community college.

Though he is obsessed with politics, he mostly hates it. And though he is obsessed with the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean he mostly loves it.

Roy has attempted to sneak into three countries (two of which no longer exist (East Germany and Czechoslovakia)), but was caught every time. He has tried to sneak out of another country, but was caught again. He has successfully bribed a government official from a second world country with a bottle of vodka, but was caught by an undercover agent from a third world country and had to conduct a retroactive supplementary bribe. Both bribes were done after he had already gotten the government document that he wanted.

But most important, Roy is especially interested in telling stories from the perspective of the loser, the forgotten, the unjustly villainized, and women with weapons.