I was born in Amarillo, Texas and grew up in rural East Texas. I’ve been ex-pat from Texas for many years, living and working in Cincinnati. Having Southern roots is a real advantage when it comes to writing fiction because I don’t have to make up much, I just have to remember. Like Faulkner said, in the South “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.” But I do have to lie (because nobody would believe the truth).

I’ve walked in a lot of shoes, among a broad spectrum of people, many of them heroic, all of them flawed or troubled in some way. A wise man once taught me that “fiction is trouble.” As long as there are humans to walk with, there will be plenty of trouble to mine for good fiction.

People+Trouble+Lies=Fiction=Truth.

Here’s a list of my shoes:

Ditch digger

Construction worker

Farmworker

Sausage maker

Cook

Forklift driver

Welder’s helper

Ironworker

Garbage collector

Lab assistant

Salesman

Legal assistant

Marketing researcher/statistician

Adjunct professor

Marketing director