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