I learned my writin' craft while hammering a typewriter for the Public Affairs Office at Cherry Point, NC, under the stern tutelage of Clarence "Rob" Robinson, one of the last of the great old-time newspapermen, waaaay back in the early '70s. My features appeared in numerous newspapers up and down the east coast during those years, as well as garnering me two now-quite-dusty international bylines. In 1972 my humor column PINKEY'S POINT (now altogether forgotten by the world at large) made me unexpectedly famous for a time in the Cherry Point/ Havelock area, and some points beyond. I was first enamoured of reading and writing at age eight, when I discovered the FREDDY THE PIG series by Walter R. Brooks; I was living in Germany at the time, with no TV onhand for three years, and the impact of a book upon one's imagination therefore made a big impression on me. My reading became voracious and eclectic and my literary influences came to include H. Allen Smith, James Thurber, Booth Tarkington, Erle Stanley Gardner (especially as A. A. Fair), P.G. Wodehouse, Fran Striker, Harry Franck and many others indeed--as a kid I used to prowl the library, choosing diverse books at random, and each one had its own effect on my inner landscape, whether I remember the author's name or not.  I have lived for twenty years now in a 1949 early-post-war-suburbia cottage near the Arkansas River, surrounded by gardens and plenty of trees; after growing up in the army, and thus constantly moving around, it is a relief to be so rooted. Though of course armed with a computer, I still compose on a manual typewriter whenever I want to hear the little bell "DING!" at the end of a line. Sometimes I even use a ballpoint pen. Almost 40 years ago I read an article in THE WRITER magazine wherein various authors were asked to give a piece of advice to aspiring wordsmiths, and one guy said, "Cultivate personal depth and learn how to write." I still consider that the best advice on the subject I have ever heard.

Author of the novels STRAY NOT BEYOND and LOST AMONG SHADOWS; the novella TOWARD AN OPEN WINDOW; co-editor of Overlook Press's WIT AND WISDOM OF FREDDY THE PIG.