Hello

I grew up in a tough blue-collar steel town, Steelton PA to be specific. Almost everyone worked in the steel mill, a typical lower middle-class town. The measure of a person was not wealth. It was how well you performed on your chosen field of battle, mine was a wrestling mat. I was like any other kid in that town, tough as nails and would do anything to win. The only thought of being creative was to order something other than whiskey and ginger ale at the bar. The thought of a steelworker’s son taking pen to paper in the 70’s was as foreign as Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

I meandered through college from liberal arts, accounting, and business administration to Information Technology, the latter gave me a degree, so I took it and ran. To be fair the liberal arts was my freshman year and I went to Keystone College to wrestle, not necessarily for an education. In my freshman year I found that I had an aptitude for creativity while taking an English Composition course with the professor, Theodore Cogswell. He wrote a Star Trek novel titled Spock Messiah. I found out quite by accident if I wrote about the seedier sides of college life with an exaggerated imagination, I would receive an A. I was the only A in a sea of C’s.  

Computer analysis and design has always come easy for me and so I found work with the State Government of Pennsylvania. In my career, which is the bulk of my life I was a computer analyst / administrator and application developer. I have designed and wrote more computer systems and end user manuals than I can document here. I find that the process of writing a novel is similar to designing a computer system. Before you type a word, you know the desired result. The same logical process is used in designing a computer system. I have held positions during my career as an Application Developer, Systems Analyst, Technical Writer, Project Manager and Geospatial Specialist. Currently I work as an Asset Management Analysis for Vector Consulting.

While in college my Sociology professor Leslie Johns told me that I was in the wrong field, that I should write, I wish I listened to her. After earning a 100% on her essay final, I graduated, got married and had two wonderful daughters. I started to write after I talked to my oldest daughter about chasing your dreams and confided that I always wish I listened to my favorite professor. In her wisdom she answered, “Why don’t you?” 

As far as hobbies, besides writing, I was a wrestling official for 31 years. During that time, I was a Rules Interpreter and Assignor of Officials and evaluated as one of the top officials in my area for 25 years, currently I serve on the District Wrestling Committee. I enjoy riding my motorcycle, and no I don’t wear a helmet, my wife wants the insurance right away.

I’ve always told my daughters two things, You can do anything a boy can do and You only lose when you quit trying.