ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Charles Weeks’ work has gone into space.

“I was at Michoud (the Michoud Assembly Facility, just out side New Orleans, which built the external fuel tank for the Space Shuttle) for 10 years. I was a quality control representative for the government. I was just a glorified inspector,” said Weeks.

Weeks began working at Brookley Field as an apprentice on the flight line and joined the Marines. He is very precise about the amount of time he spent with the Marines.

“Three years, seven months, seventeen days and two hours,” said Weeks.

As a Marine, he went to Australia, and took part in action on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, and the Russell Islands.

“I had three landings,” said Weeks.

After leaving Michoud, he went to Huntsville as an OSHA representative and took “early” retirement. He and his wife, Gwen wanted to live near family, and settled in Robertsdale.

“My oldest son, Terry, lives in Gulf Shores, and my other son, Kenny, lives in Marrero, La.,” said Weeks.

But it’s been writing, not rockets, that has held Weeks’ attention.,

“For years and years, I have loved to write,” said Weeks, who says he did not finish high school.

“My family were farmers, and that is what I expected to do,” said Weeks.

Instead, life found Weeks in battles, and inspecting rockets. So why not writing?

He got a portable typewriter and proceeded to “type with two fingers.”

And Weeks had the same problem not-so-good typists have encountered for years.

“My fingers often hit the wrong key,” said Weeks. “I sometimes forget quotation marks. ”

Things improved when Weeks got his first home computer. He has built a special desk for himself, one with the keyboard at just the right height, and the monitor sunken into the desk, so he does not have eye or neck strain.

“I really did not get serious until I got a computer,” said Weeks.

And early experience with a computer didn’t do Weeks any good. He says he wrote “Survivors,” a piece that begins, “I came along before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, zippers, Frisbees, heart transplants and the pill ….”

You’ve probably seen it.

“Yes, I wrote that thing I believe in the late 1980s. It was the last part of a letter to a friend in Huntsville, Alabama. The next time I saw it it was in print with 'author unknown' at the bottom,” Weeks said in an e-mail.

Since then, Weeks has been more cautious about making sure that his work goes out with proper credit attached.

But, “Survivors” is still in his thoughts.

“I didn’t put my name on it right away,” he said, “and now I’d be afraid of putting my name on it,. Someone else will come up and claim credit.” Weeks added that because the Internet allows people to tweak their version before passing it on, there are many versions of the story out there now.

Weeks published his own story, “Let Tomorrow Come,” a few years ago with Authorhouse. The book is still available from online retailers such as Barnes and Noble (bn.com) and Amazon.

His new book, “A Madness Called Love,” is due out from PublishAmerica Aug. 29.

“One girl chases her boyfriend to Alaska,” said Weeks, outlining the book’s plot. “She takes her girlfriend with her. The guy is a veterinarian and he just walked off and left the girl.”

The companion, named Gladys JoAnn Worthington, finds a love of her own, and it takes a while before the path of true love runs smooth.

And Weeks discovered something that all writers find out eventually — characters often have minds of their own,

“I intended the veterinarian to be the lead (character),” said Weeks. “But he turned out to be so weak.”

Weeks is currently working on another book, that he hopes to have wrapped up soon.

In the meantime, Weeks credits the friends he’s made at Vaughn’s Family Restaurant where he stops in for coffee and an occasional biscuit with helping him carry on.

“There are exciting things that happen there every day and life is delicious at Vaughn's Family Restaurant,” said Weeks.