Born in Texas City, TX, the son of a career Air Force meteorologist. Was sent to my grandparent’s house in Tucson, Arizona when things were tough at home. I was pretty damn lost, as my grandparents were largely strangers to me. Fortunately, like so many kids before me, I was rescued by fiction. In a tiny used bookstore, I discovered that some good soul had unloaded his entire collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars”. I spent my RC Cola money on the first book, “A Princess of Mars.”
These books were possessed of magic: they were able to transport me far from this dusty land of relatives who I didn’t know to another dusty land of adventure, heroism, nobility, and even love. It was the first magic I’d encountered that wasn’t a patent fraud, and when I closed the stiff paperback with the lurid images on the cover, I decided it was the kind of magic I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to mastering. And, thus, I was saved.
Since then, I’ve done all the usual starving artist jobs (waiter, janitor, delivery driver) and one very cool gig where I got paid to be Errol Flynn––which is when I became the 61st US Aviation Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer.
I love to bicycle, snorkel with my son, cook, play with the rescue animals (three dogs, two cats), and get visited by some of our former foster kids. I live in Southern California with my wife.