About Me

Billy Loran Moore is author of six published novels. His firstnovel,Cracker’s Mule, (NewSouthBooks.com) was based upon fictionalized stories from time he spent with his grandparents ontheir farm, near Opp, Alabama. NewSouth also published hissecond novel, Little Brother Real Snake, a coming of age novel about a Native American boy on the Great Plains in the sixteenth century. These were followed by two adult western novels, Llano Estacado, Kindle/Create Space and Professor Hayes which was published by Hale, Ltd., in the U.K.

He grew up in DeFuniak Springs in beautiful Northwest Florida, referred to as the Panhandle or the Republic of Lower Alabama. He spent his childhood weekends and school holidays with his grandparents on their farm near Opp, Alabama, the site of several of his stories. His grandfather made most of his living trading cows, but he lived to trade mules. One story Papa told of getting stuck with a blind mule in one of his trades sparked Billy’s first novel, Cracker’s Mule. 

Billy graduated from Walton High School in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and received degrees from Chipola College in Marianna, Florida, Mississippi State University, and Rice University. He also did graduate work in history at Florida State University and studied novel writing at Rice University. He taught for forty-two years in public schools, prison systems, community colleges, Florida State University and Rice University. He also coached football in high schools in Florida and Texas as well as a stint at Rice University.

He lives with his wife, Dierdra (“Dee”), his main inspiration to write, and a three-legged cat named Hopalong Catsidy on a fifty acre natural lake near DeFuniak Springs, Florida, a site so remote that a UPS delivery driver once asked if everyone on this lake was in the Witness Protection Program. Billy and Dierdra have two daughters, a son-in-law originally from France and one grandson.