Many federal employees dream of retiring to a house by a lake and writing the Great American Novel. Joe Woods actually did it. His fifth novel, Secrets of the Spiral Tower, was published Oct. 15. Joe Woods, a Mississippi native, worked for the U.S. Forest Service in the Tahoe National Forest for two years. He returned to Mississippi and worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Vicksburg District for 38 years, retiring in 2003.