PENDLETON, S.C. (WSPA) – Anderson County Sheriff’s Office deputy Jason Fort might be the perfect school resource officer.
When we visited with him, he appeared to know the name of every single student at Riverside Middle School.
“I get to be that layer of protection and safety they need, but at the same time I get to have that mentoring relationship like a teacher would,” Deputy Fort said.
He said his protective nature comes from being the oldest of three brothers and it was nurtured in him by his grandmothers.
“This is my third year here at Riverside. And I love it,” according to Fort. “This is my dream job.”
If that was the entire story about Deputy Fort, it would be a good one. But wait, there’s more.
He’s also the author of more than a dozen books.
“I don’t call myself a great writer or anything like that, but I am kind of prolific because I keep coming up with more stuff to write. It just happens.”
Fort said he was an officer for Greenville Hospital System when a fellow officer handed him a cross that was in a box of confiscated knives.
“He said, ‘that’s not a weapon.’ But, I was l like, ‘no, but it could be a calling card.’ And this idea of an assassin came to my mind and about writing a whole story.”
Fort said he quickly laid out an outline for an entire book in a nearby office on a piece of copy paper. He wrote his first book in 2014.
Rejection was also part of the process.
He said he stopped counting rejection letters from publishers after 50 before deciding to self-publish his work.
Fort tells us he’s writing two books at the moment.
He describes his genre as apocalyptic fiction that’s best suited for readers age 12 and older.
Some of his books are set in Anderson County, but names have been changed. The deputy appears to have no shortage of ideas.
“I think I was in the shower and thought of this 30-book outline of 30 books that would lead up to the Book of Revelation,” Fort tells 7NEWS. “So, I’m not going to run out of stuff to write anytime soon.”
He also writes non-fiction including a book titled Some Wars Never End. It’s based on his grandfather’s experiences in World War II.
You can find Deputy Fort’s available books on his website.
