meet the author

I was raised in a military family. By the time I graduated high school, we lived in two foreign countries and five different states. Growing up in the 1960’s was a care-free lifestyle. We didn’t have electronic devices so we had to knock on someone’s door to see if they could out and play. Toys were simple. We played kick the can, marbles and attached baseball cards, which are probably worth a thousand dollars today, to the spokes of our bikes with a clothes pin. Today’s grandmas wore hot pants, mini-skirts and go-go boots back in the day. We drank from the garden hose, and never wore helmets when we roller skated or rode our bikes.

By the time I was in high school, the Vietnam War was at its peak. I missed the draft by a year. My dad and brother each did a tour in Southeast Asia. Fortunately they returned intact. Most everybody at the time knew a family that lost someone in the war.

I went from high school in rural New Jersey to The Ohio State University, where I studied Environmental Sciences and Engineering. My first job out of college I worked in the West Texas oilfields. I spent countless hours on the platforms of drilling rigs or fifty feet up on a derrick. The industry crashed, prompting President Reagan to declare towns such as Tulsa and Houston disaster areas. I was living in Tulsa at the time and witnessed the unemployment rate shoot-up twenty-five percent overnight. It took me almost a year to find a job. I beat out more than one hundred other applicants for a job in Environmental Sciences. I performed environmental investigations for three years, before I was promoted into sales and business management. The good news for the company I was working for was I increased sales ten-fold. The bad news for them, when they laid me off to save money on the commission and profit sharing, I took several of their customers and formed my own company. I ended up working half the hours and making twice the money as before.

Several years later, the banking and real estate crisis hit, and the stock market took a nose-dive. I lost the business, but I had money saved. The next couple years I travelled to Europe, Tahiti, Australia, took up golf, played on as many softball teams as I could and decided it was time to write a book.

Following 9-11 and after several years of leisure; I accepted a position with the Department of Homeland Security in the Virgin Islands. Living on an island in the Caribbean provided ample opportunity to sit on a beach, under a palm tree, and contemplate life. That’s when the writing of “Play the Game” got serious. I intermingled my writing between visiting almost every island in the Caribbean and most countries in Central America. By the way, reach out if you want advice on visiting the Caribbean.

One of my fondest memories of St. Thomas includes sitting on my deck grilling dinner and watching the sun set behind the western islands. Laidback experiences such as this are referred to as “Limin” in the islands. During these inspirational moments, a feral cat would routinely visit me and I would share whatever I was grilling with her. After a couple months, and on her very last visit to me, she brought her kitten and dropped it at my feet. Well Spook (slang for an undercover CIA agent) is still sleeping at the foot of my bed fifteen years later. She’s closest I ever came to being a father.

After ten years of island living, I moved back to the States. I was offered a position with Homeland Security in Charleston, South Carolina. I retired after five years in Charleston and still live here today. During the two years since retirement, I finished my very long-winded novel. It ended up being almost 400,000 words, which prompted me to break it into two novels. Book One is available now on Amazon for your reading pleasure. Book Two should be out shortly. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Please leave your comments. I’d love to hear from you.