Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
In Rochester New York. I lived in bad neighborhoods, drugs and violence were everyday things. For two years, between fourteen and sixteen, before I went into the service, I lived on the streets. It taught me a great deal about how life really is and how we very often keep ourselves oppressed and poor.
When did you first start writing?
I started writing at about thirteen. When I was eighteen I wrote my first novel length manuscript. It became something like an addiction after that. I can normally write a 75 k novel in about ten days. Not perfect, of course, but complete. I currently have more than 30 novels that are unpublished, as well as short stories, lyrics and plays. I took my first creative writing class in 1982. I published my first novel in 1985.
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