BIOGRAPHY
Born in Detroit in the tail end of the fifties, I lived on its Eastside. While growing up in the Motor City, I loved to play games that relied on my imagination. I really enjoyed pretending to be a cowboy when I was very young. Westerns were big in those days, and I watched a lot of popular ones like the "Lone Ranger", "Cheyenne", and "Zorro" on television…and not always in color. As I got a little older, I developed a fascination for everything space which bordered on obsession. The space race with the old Soviet Union was in full swing. I often pretended that I was an astronaut exploring an alien world. I enjoyed watching TV shows dedicated to that genre such as "Lost in Space", "Thunderbirds", and "Star Trek". All these television programs helped to fuel my budding creativity. Later, we migrated all the way over to the Westside of Detroit, where I spent my rebellious teenage years—it was a crazy, and a bit of a foggy time.
In high school, I found that I loved to write. I kept a notebook where I would experiment with small stories, a kind of doodling with words. Writing was a way to free my imagination and let it run wild. I thought books were the greatest invention ever made, and I still do. The first book that really affected me deeply was "Flowers for Algernon". Later, I read the "Hobbit" and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy both of which started my love affair with the fantasy genre.
At twenty, I joined the naval service; with the idea of leaving my midwestern life behind and setting out on a grand adventure traveling the world. Stationed in the northeastern part of Washington State, I found the surrounding landscape, where the Cascade Mountains touched the icy cold waters of Puget Sound, to be almost mythical. Sometimes, the western half of Washington State reminded me a bit of the fantastical lands one would find in a fantasy novel. It was an inspiring place for sure.
My naval unit was sent several times over those early years from Washington State to be deployed aboard two different, gigantic aircraft carriers (both of which have now been decommissioned—man, do I feel old!). My voyages aboard those ships took me to such wondrous places as the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. I remember the magical feeling of standing there, high up on the flight deck, at the bow of those massive ships on a warm night, the sea breeze kissing my face, the twinkling Milky Way arcing above, and the dark, churning waters of the unending Indian Ocean stretching out in all directions. It was an incredible personal adventure. I read constantly during my precious free time (Sci-fi, westerns, but mostly fantasy) and would write every night for hours as that mammoth, metal ship rocked gently in the middle of the ocean. At the time, I was scribbling away on a book that could be considered a prequel to "Flight of the Vessel".
Determined to acquire a college degree after leaving the service, I enrolled at a state university where I studied English, literature, and several writing styles including: novel, short story, and playwriting. In search of better job opportunities, I left the cool, rainy, fantasy lands of Washington State to end up in the rolling hills of Virginia to work for a small newspaper in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley. There, I bought a little home and settled down with my family. While working, I did manage to write a little here and there, but not as much as I would have liked, finishing a spec script, some poems, and such. One day I received a pair of headphones. So, after putting them on and selecting Fleetwood Mac’s "Rhiannon", I found myself furiously jotting down some ideas for a new book that would carry on the story I had written aboard those mighty warships many years earlier…and thus began the "Vision Dream Series" in earnest.
