DW Decker

DW Decker is the author of more than twenty books. He likes to write historical books. “I enjoy the research; and writing a helpful and humorous book is a pleasure!” He also has written several photographic books. These are designed to show the everyday user of a cell phone what incredible photos your camera can take! Another passion is writing short stories. “These are fun, both to write and to read!” His collection of “Just for Fun” books are worth checking out. His story-telling style creates fun books that can be read in one sitting. Need a fun book for the airplane ride? This is it! In his HISTORICAL BOOKS series: 2024: "Los Alamos, Then & Now" is a collection of photos from the Manhattan Project days (1940s), with identical “updated” photos from today. If you like old photographs, “Then and Now” books are great! Los Alamos, New Mexico is known for the Manhattan Project. Visitors often ask what the town looked like back then. “Then“ is the 1920s to the 1940s. “Now” is the 2020s. In the 1920s, Los Alamos was a secluded pasture on a grassy mesa surrounded by forest. A few homesteaders had their cabins here, and Ashley Pond built a Ranch School on the mesa, which he called “An Outdoor School for Boys“. Robert Oppenheimer knew of this out-of-the-way retreat, and in the 1940s established a secret World War II laboratory here. In the 2020s, Los Alamos is a great little town to visit. It is compact and filled with history. In this book you’ll find historic and modern photographs of the iconic spots in Los Alamos. ------- 2023: "The Streets of Los Alamos" describes the streets and roads in and around Los Alamos, New Mexico. It is a “historic perspective” book, looking at the how the streets have changed over time. It includes over a hundred maps and photographs. It briefly describes the historic “original” roads, then covers the eras including the Ranch School, the Manhattan Project, and the current period through the year 2023. In his usual story-telling style, DW Decker emphasizes the “strange and meandering” streets, and how they offer curious and sometimes confusing arrangements. ------- 2023: "Los Alamos Architecture" is an architectural journey into the past and present of this once-secret town. It is here that ancestral pueblo people settled, followed by Homesteaders and eventually military and civilian workers for the U.S. government’s secret WWII Manhattan Project. The military post would later become a civilian town. During each era, people built homes and communities, and these structures form the setting for stories of resilience, curiosity, and innovation. Los Alamos architecture is a mixture of old and new. Each structure reflects the values, technology, and vision of a unique community and influences how people interact and move through space and time today. The spaces and places on the mesa are cultural windows into the past and provide a backdrop for people working toward the future. Join us as we visit some of these structures. ------- 2022: "The Ultimate Los Alamos Tour Guide" provides a step-by-step guide to this amazing small town -- as if a Tour Guide were right there with you! You can walk the very same steps as the incredible scientists that worked in secret to develop America’s atomic bomb. This unlikely hidden spot, perched on the side of an ancient volcano, became a bustling little town. Only five miles from end to end, it became the invention spot of a new technology that changed the world and ended a war. Here you’ll find great science, surrounded by beautiful nature. The author personally walked every step and drove every mile of the places you will visit in this Tour Guide. Accompanied by pristine photos, this is a book you can use, then enjoy again and again. Explore ancient ruins, historic events, and magnificent nature trails along steep canyon edges. Experience the Manhattan Project! Walk where they walked! ------- 2017: The historical book "Los Alamos Big Band: Keeping the Music Alive" tells the story of the Los Alamos Big Band, from its ambitious beginning in a small mountain town — to the modern full-size big band, carrying the tradition of the Big Band Era to the present. You will follow the stories of the founders and original band members as you read their first-person account of the early and formative years. Current musicians and long-time members reveal quips, ‘characters’, gig stories, and favorites from the current repertoire of a big band. This book may find you wanting to read the entire story in one sitting! +++++++++++++++++++++++++ DW Decker’s PHOTOGRAPHY books: 2022: Seasons of Clouds is a 7-volume photographic exhibit. Each season is covered in detail, and represents the very best of 19,000 photos collected over the entire year of 2021. The photos were taken among the very scenic mountains of northern New Mexico, and capture every aspect of this ‘dawn to dusk’ adventure. This exhibit is designed to show what an everyday cell phone camera can capture. Pre-dawn and even late night photos can be captured on a cell phone camera! ------- 2021: Look To The Sky presents photos showing amazing cloud formations. "Bright. Brilliant. Colorful. Dramatic. Moody. Dark and Threatening.” All of that is inside this book. The sky is an amazing place. Cloud formations can evoke the same emotions in you. Do you want to be uplifted? Look to the sky. Feeling dreary, downhearted, afraid? The sky can mimic these emotions. If you have ever looked up at the sky and said, "Wow!", you already know what is inside this book. If you haven’t, there is energy, passion, and encouragement within. In this book, I show you what can be accomplished with just a cell phone camera. If you are a beginner to this hobby, this book can help you take better pictures. If you are more experienced, you may very well enjoy what the sky has to offer. ------- 2020: Clouds and Sunsets presents inspiring pictures of clouds and of sunsets. These photographs were taken on a cell phone as an experiment to test the quality of this form of photography. The photographs were taken across four oceans and cover half the globe. You will be amazed what a cell phone camera can do! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DW Decker’s “JUST FOR FUN” books: 2024: “SARCASM" started out as a short story, but soon grew into a dissertation of irreverence; — “all of the things I’ve wanted to say to people!” ------- 2023: "How to be a Hermit Without Really Trying”. In this book, I compare my temporary experience as a hermit (two years during the Covid pandemic) with another temporary hermit, Henry David Thoreau. What did he do? How isolated was he? Why did he end his experiment, and why did I end mine? Maybe more importantly, what did he learn? Did any of it change his philosophy on life? Did my experience change my life views? ------- 2023: "The Emperor’s Diary". This little book presents a fanciful story about a fictional emperor. Silly and fun. ------- 2022: WRITE YOUR FIRST BOOK! Do you want to read about how to write, or do you want to start writing? This is a precise (and quick) guide. I lead you step-by-step through the process of gathering your idea, doing research, and writing your first book. I’ll tell you how I did it (and some humorous mistakes I made), and what steps you need to take next. My step-by-step process works! You’ll be writing — fast!
 ------- 2020: "Siblings -- different perspectives on life" is a collaboration with fiction writer Dana Macy. In this two-book series they explore how the same upbringing can result in very different views of growing up, and of life in general. Volume One presents ‘Images of Life’. Volume Two explores ‘The World Around Us’. In each book, short stories are developed based on a picture of growing up, or of the world around us.