A Little About Me
The themes touch on my past. As far back as grade school, I enjoyed fantasy and science fiction. My interest in law enforcement is a holdover from about 25 years in it, including attending the FBI National Academy.
I served three tours in Vietnam, the last two as a correspondent, which got me interested in writing. I wrote a bit since, but never published more than a few articles. I finally decided to put pen to paper with a few ideas that have been circulating at the back of my mid for a while.
My career has been an odd one. About a quarter century in law enforcement, a stint as an information systems analyst for the State of California, a number of years managing the California State Supreme Court headquarters building, twenty-odd years selling antiques in shops and on eBay, and five years appraising firearms for an auction house. Volunteer work with kids, town government and a community health organization.
One semi-enjoyable task got me back into writing. I edited my late wife’s doctoral dissertation. I was her research assistant, so I enjoyed the topic. The formatting, on the other hand, was excruciating. Once her classmates and friends found out that I did it, I had five more to do. Special torture. I eventually began to enjoy it to a small degree, in a masochistic sort of way. Like doing a 2000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
It was also humorous at times. I discovered that four out of six doctoral candidates in my small-population study did not know that you don’t have to use the space bar to indent a paragraph, or hit “return” to start a new line when using a computer. Do you know how long it takes to remove paragraph marks at the end of each line of a ninety-five page manuscript?
I live in New Hampshire, where fall scenes like this (taken by me in 2017) are no more than a short drive from my home. Another great benefit is that there are about two dozen really great diners within fifteen minutes of my house.
