Reading The Hobbit and JRR Tolkien's marvelous Lord of the Rings trilogy in 10th grade inspired me to write; life had other ideas. After some years in the military, I went to work at Ford Motor Company. After six years, I realized it wasn't for me. All the time I had been writing, but got nowhere with it. After Ford, I held a series of manufacturing management positions, experiencing layoff, downsizing, and off-shoring. Finally, being forced to believe manufacturing in America was dying, I tried other jobs. The&nbs more...