For more than 50 years, Dan Lee has been a writer. Now, the Warsaw man offers his short digital stories for busy people on the go. “I do short stories. They’re only about 80 pages,” Lee said during an interview Monday afternoon. Lee’s stories, under the Danny Boy Stories® brand of ebooks, are available on Amazon at www.amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble at www.bn.com for Kindle®, Nook® or any PC, Tablet or smartphone. The Kindle® books all are also audio books. Lee said he usually writes 20,000 to 22,000 words per story. He said he’s been asked why he doesn’t write a novel, but people are so busy they don’t always have time to read longer works. He also said he doesn’t have the patience to do all the background research a novel would require. “I targeted busy people who don’t have time to read,” Lee said. Lee got his start in writing for the Warsaw Daily Times-Union from 1956 to 1959. That is about the same time period when most of his works are set. When he left Kosciusko County’s only daily newspaper, he was typing 70 words per minute, he said. “It was a whole lot of fun back then,” Lee said. Before working in print, Lee worked in broadcasting and then served in the U.S. Army Reserves. He retired in 2003 from full-time work. He started writing short stories, he said, because his grandsons asked him about when he lived in Wabash. He wrote the stories up, and was reminded that he was a “writer.” After that, he started writing fiction. “Fiction has to have some truth to be believeable,” Lee said.

He’s written 12 works, including one that is a collection of his first five stories. The other stories include three or four police stories and three about a journalist. “The longest is ‘The Quiet One.’ It’s one of my favorites. It’s about an investigative reporter. Part of that comes over into ‘The Limelight,’” Lee said. “I discovered along the way you have to put a little romance in it for the ladies,” Lee said. “I have one rule: that I stay away from profanity. I don’t think it is necessary. They’re written strictly for entertainment.” Lee said his most popular stories are “Old Man Cop” and “Unwilling Heroes.” “If you want to be a millionaire,” Lee said of writing short stories, “this isn’t the racket.” All of Lee’s commissions from his stories so far, he said, have gone to cancer survivors, including his own daughter who has battled breast cancer. Lee said cancer is not an easy thing to battle and it is expensive. “The Stagehands” is one of Lee’s works available to read digitally. It is a historical compliation of the initial five years of the Colusa County, Calif., Civic Theatre, complete with photographs, lists of cast members and productions, as well as anecdotes written by Lee. “Oddly enough,” Lee said, “it does pretty well.” Asked how many digital books Lee plans to write, he said, “Just keep going until I’m tired of doing it. I’m in my 70s so who knows how long I’ll keep doing it. I do enjoy doing it.” For more information, visit the website http://dannyboystories.com