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I will begin with my beginning. My mother, Alma, emigrated from England to the United States at the end of WWII. She had served in the Woman’s Air Corps, survived the rocket attacks on London, and worked as a governess for the children of British aristocracy and the fleet admiralty. My father, Arnold, the son of a sharecropper, had joined the Navy and fought at the battle of Midway. As a military family, we moved frequently, living in isolated and exotic locales, from the white sands desert in New Mexico to the beaches of Hawaii. After high school, I joined the Navy and worked as an engineering laboratory technician with a submarine squadron in Key West, Florida. (Yes, that was a great experience!)
After completing my enlistment, I attended colleges and universities and completed degrees in psychology and counseling. I hold specializations in group counseling and I have been trained in Rational-Emotive Psychotherapy. I have worked in clinical and research psychology, and in academic research development and management. I have held appointments at California State University (Stanislaus), Pittsburg State University, the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Southern California, and the University of Wisconsin (Whitewater). I have conducted extensive research on how to promote academic excellence and promote effective faculty development in higher education.
Currently, I serve on the board of directors of The Praxis Ethiopia Foundation (www.PraxisEthiopia.org), working to improve food production, healthcare, and education in Ethiopia and sub-Sahara Africa. My son, Trevor, and I are also in the process of setting up a winery to produce old world meads and craft wines.
I am the author of the realistic apocalyptic story, “Phontaine’s Gifts,” the futurist thriller, “The Scoloderus Conspiracy,” and a collection of short stories, the “Woodcliff Anthology.” I also contributed two short stories in the best selling, “Shameless Shorts Anthology” (a top-ten seller among anthologies on Amazon). Curiously, I completed “Phontaine’s Gifts” on May 22, 2011, as a storm passed over my home, heading east. That storm spawned the F5 tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri, 45 minutes away.
In addition to writing the next book in the “Survival Series,” I am immersed in and dominated by my vices. I home-roast coffee; grow hops and Habanero, jalapeno, Anaheim, and Cayenne Peppers to make craft wines; make pizzas from scratch once or twice a week (see www.Joy-of-Pizza.com); brew beer and make mead and craft wines. Additionally, I am restoring and maintaining a 1973 Porsche 914, which had always been one of my favorite cars.
My family and I live in Oswego, Kansas, on a densely wooded bluff above the Neosho River Valley. It is an excellent setting for writing, raising German Shepherd Dogs, making mead, beer, and wine, and watching owls and eagles, and contemplating how wonderful life is with a great cup of coffee, a stunning glass of perfectly aged mead, or a delicious mug of nut-brown ale.
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