Norton R. Nowlin was born in Oklahoma City, in 1951, and grew up in rural East Texas, where he was graduated from John Tyler High School in 1970. After a year studying engineering at Tyler Junior College, Norton enlisted in the Vietnam-Era U.S. Marine Corps and spent six years working as an engineering electronics technician, rising to the rank of sergeant E-5. In 1977, Norton was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and returned to Tyler, Texas, where he continued his undergraduate education and began his writing career as a poet, more...