Born in Houston, Texas, Andrew was raised in a family of seven brothers. Most of the action and adventure that dominated his young life sprang from the imaginations of the brothers Raiford. Since there was no limit to the stories they could create through their play-acting, it was not uncommon to have Daniel Boone not only be attacked by bears or red-coats, but also Nazis and/or extraterrestrial conquerors. Imaginative eight-year-olds care nothing for history.

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During his young adult years, Andrew took on some very odd jobs to keep his young family fed. For two years he was a real cowboy who rode, roped, and pushed cattle on a large ranch nestled in the snow-capped mountains of northern California. After moving back to his home state of Texas he worked in the printing business as a journeyman pressman, and later in gun sales, and corporate security. He even worked in church ministry as a pastor for ten years during the period that he and his wife raised five talented children. Those offspring would later become the inspiration for Andrew’s first novel, Void of Power – New Generation, which surprisingly contained no Nazis or extraterrestrial invaders.