1. I hear you have mysteries featuring a Southern ornithologist. Tell us about the series.

The series is called “The Benjamin Miles Mysteries.” The protagonist, who prefers to go by Miles, is a Southern ornithologist who investigates birds, but stumbles across murders.

The first book, The Elvis Bird, begins with Miles alone in a dark audio lab, listening to recordings made by a Cornell University team that were collected in the Okefenokee Swamp. Miles is searching for the distinctive kent-call or double-knock of the now presumed extinct, ivory-billed woodpecker. Instead of kent-calls, Miles overhears a human conversation, a gunshot, and a splash. He inquires about a possible murder from his Ithaca, New York office, but apparently, no one has been murdered. Frustrated, he decides to fly home to Georgia to investigate a murder that may not have occurred and a bird that may not exist. The Elvis Bird is part mystery, part love story, and one-hundred percent Southern.

In the second book, Death of a Golden Bird, Miles travels to California at the request of his old professor, Baz Chapman, to address a meeting of the Field Ornithologists of the Pacific. Miles’ ulterior motive for the trip is a chance to reconnect with Susan Swail, a mathematics professor at Stanford, and his love interest from book one. Baz also has an ulterior motive for inviting Miles to California: he wants Miles to take up his research on golden eagles. Baz has documented that golden eagles are dying at an alarming rate because the state has approved major wind farm construction in the Pacific Flyway. Miles is soon drawn into a mystery that involves possible corruption in the state government and an eccentric billionaire who aims to connect all of California with magnetic trains powered by the world’s largest wind turbines.

I am in the middle of writing the third book in the series, A Charm of Hummingbirds. The setting for this novel is Washington, D.C. Readers can expect to learn a bit about hummingbirds and the imagined political shenanigans of lobbyists in Washington. The book will appear in the spring of 2026.

2. Why did you add a dog to the second book?

I’m a big fan of Andrew Cartmel, the British author who writes The Vinyl Detective series of mysteries. Cartmel is a cat-lover in real life and writes about his protagonist’s two cats in each book. It got me thinking about my own novel. Could a pet help the story along? In Death of a Golden Bird, Miles is competing with Susan’s fiancé, Peter, for her attention. Peter, has gifted Susan a terrier named Asta. I thought it could be insightful to see how Asta interacts with Peter and Miles as Susan is making up her mind about these two men. Asta also has a small part in finding the evidence needed to solve the mystery.

3. Why did you decide to self-publish?

After a forty-year career teaching mathematics and computer science, I came to serious writing rather late. I took a creative writing class at Merton College, Oxford, and my desire to write fiction was ignited. I’ve spent years practicing, and finally produced The Elvis Bird after learning about the real-life search for ivory-billed woodpeckers in Arkansas. I began to shop the book with agents and found the process encouraging. My plans to publish were thwarted by the discovery that I had stage-four intestinal cancer.

With what seemed like limited time to live, I decided to skip the Kubler-Ross stages of grief and jump to a celebration of the life I had been given and joy for each day that comes along. My daughter suggested self-publishing the novel, and I decided she was right: it was a wonderful way to get the book into the world. Three years after the initial diagnosis of cancer, I am still in the world and writing. I don’t seem to have cancer at the moment. For that, I am joyful and blessed.

In looking back at my experience, I believe that self-publishing can be an excellent choice for a young writer. It gives them a chance to write, improve, and see their books in the world. With diligence, a young writer can develop an audience over time as they improve the quality of their books and develop a brand.

4. How do you promote your books?

With each new book, I throw a celebration. It’s held at the Springer Opera House, the State Theatre of Georgia. I invite everyone I know, and it’s open to anyone interested in the book. We have lots of food and drinks. It’s a chance to thank my friends for their prayers and kind deeds. After speaking briefly about the new book and reading a few paragraphs, I sign books as everyone mingles.

In the Venn diagram of mystery lovers and bird lovers, there is a large intersection of readers. I decided to advertise my books in Living Bird Magazine, published by Cornell University, and in Bird Watching Magazine. This is fairly expensive, but the risk reflects my belief that the books are worth reading and that there are people in the world who would enjoy them. My goal is modest: I try to break even. I have found it a very effective way of promoting book sales.

I occasionally speak at bird groups, including the Georgia Audubon Society Bookclub. I promoted my books with that group, and they included my books in their reading list.

I have two websites:

• dewoolbright.com – my publishing site that lists all my books.
• punctiliousprogrammer.com – my blog and teaching site for IBM Assembly Language. The blog has a substantial number of readers, and I have promoted my mysteries there.

5. Where can readers buy your books and connect with you online?

The best way to connect with me is by email: woolbright_david@icloud.com

You can see links to purchase my books at DEWoolbright.com and my books are also available at Amazon in several formats.

6. Do you have a dog?

Rocco is the shelter dog we bought several years after losing our sweet schnauzer. I named him after the fabulous Italian detective Rocco Schiavonne in Ice Cold Murders. Here he is, solving the mystery of how he can spend more time on my lap.

MARCIA: Thank you, D. E., for being my January interviewee!

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