I have a writing degree from Michigan State University and have written freelance for twenty years until I put my career in photography on the middle burner to focus on fiction and non-fiction I WANT to write.  

Stephen King and Mario Puzo were the defining writers from my childhood- tough the first adult novel I read was Audrey Rose at the age of 9 and it scared the bejesus out of me.  I knew then i emerged from my "reading den" (closet), I was going to write thrillers one day.