Louis grew up in the Midwest and worked as a factory worker for fourteen years after high school before returning to college and earning a degree in engineering. This led to a successful career in Construction Management. Never much of a reader himself, he met a beautiful girl who grew up on farm in the South.

Despite living on just a few different farms within a five-mile radius her entire life, Mandy was a traveler and had been to many places around the world. However, what Mandy loved most was reading, which allowed her to travel and enjoy adventures in many more places around the world through the stories she read. Mandy eventually talked Louis into listening to an audio book since he refused to read, and he discovered Clive Cussler and the Oregon Files—he was hooked.

When Clive Cussler died, Louis feared his favorite series of books had come to an end. Not finding anything else that interested him to read, he decided to embark on writing a similar book to the Oregon Files and voilà—The Charaka Adventures were born.

Soon after Louis started writing the book, his son, Brian passed away suddenly at just thirty years old. The book was therapeutic in keeping his mind occupied during that devastating period of time in his life. Despite being confined to the house due to the pandemic, Louis’ imagination took him around the world on action packed adventures with the Syndicate.

After finishing the novel, Louis thought it was an entertaining read, but it was far from publishable. That’s when Mandy took over . . . correcting grammar, re-wording sentences, and making the book much better than Louis ever could on his own. As with everything else in their lives, Louis and Mandy’s potential together as a couple was much greater collectively than as individuals. L&M Payton, although not really writers, were now authors.