By: Shayla Terry

Danny Hall, a Rutledge native, has had many job titles, with author being the latest. With his newfound success, Hall hasn’t forgot home and has donated his two books to both the Luverne and Brantley Public Library.

Hall says he began writing just as a hobby after retiring from driving commercial trucks. He found the social media site, Facebook, and the rest is history.

“In February of last year I started writing,” he said. “My wife introduced me to Facebook. I started putting my stories on Facebook, and all of a sudden, I had a following. People wanted to read more and more stories, and they talked me into doing a book.”

His first collection of stories, “What Is It With Me?” was released in April of this year. It included many stories of his own life, including life out on the Rutledge Loop as a child, his short stint living in the Northern United States and stories from his military service in Vietnam. There are also quite a few humorous fictional stories, many including characters named after local people.

“Some of the stories I use research before I write them,” Hall said. “I try to research about the area and time period that I’m going to write about. God has inspired a lot of it. ‘What Is It With Me?’is about me and my life, but most of the other stories usually just have moral in them that just comes to me.”

Sales have been brisk, which seemed to surprise Hall. Both books have sold well in the United States, and sales are quickly branching outside the country.

“It’s been a shock to me,” he said. “The Luverne librarian has told me that the first book has been checked out quite a bit.

Hall donated his proceeds from the first 125 copies of “What Is It With Me?” to the Troy Sav-A-Life center to help pregnant women.

“I felt like we can’t do enough for young women who may have become pregnant and had problems in life,” Hall said. “I said I’d just donate the proceeds to that and it has worked out well.”If you’d like to share a story with him, you can contact him on Facebook.

Both books are also available for purchase locally in several businesses, as well as online.