Grew up in the New York City suburbs, in a house of 25,000 used books, graduated from Columbia College, have worked for three newspapers, and authored two books. Much of my writing is closely tied to my love of history.  I also seek to provide readers with a sense of place about where they live, work or travel. I'm an off-the-beaten track travel writer. I like backroads and forgotten places, but I also find satisfaction in writing about dynamic change in cities and suburbs. My freelance writing - since I took a buyout from the Washington Post in 2004 - has flowed naturally from these interests.

"Maryland Lost and Found...Again," published by Woodholme House (Baltimore) in May 2000 and reissued in 2003 by Tidewater Publishers, is an expanded, updated and illustrated paperback edition of "Maryland Lost and Found: People and Places from Chesapeake to Appalachia" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). My second book, "Chesapeake Country," was published in 1990 by Abbeville Press (New York) and is now in its fifth printing. Articles have appeared in AARP, Smithsonian, Audubon, Family Circle, National Geographic Traveler, Parents, Preservation, Chesapeake Travel & Leisure, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Boston, Philadelphia, Washingtonian, Planning, Washington History, and other many other publications.