I grew up in Roseville, Minnesota, in the 50's and 60's, on a Norman Rockwell kind of street with 80 kids, and where we took over the streets to play baseball and fly kites in the summer time.

I started writing my first book, Red North! over fifteen years ago, on a whim. Working full time, I just thought it would be fun to write a story. It was quite an ordeal, not having any formal training in "writing" other than technical writing. Probably couldn't have done it on a typewriter. Amen for computers and word docs! After that first novel, it kind of opened the flood gates and I started my next book, Off The Grid, then my third, two years after that.

My latest book, The Elephant's Foot, uses the tragedy of Chernobyl as a backdrop. I was on watch in the control room of a nuclear power plant in California two days after the Chernobyl accident (back in the 80's) when we picked up the contamination from the plant on our radiation monitors. Working in nuclear power, I recognized the horror of what happened. It always stuck with me and was the inspiration for the book.

Actually, my neighbor is Martha Beck, a New York Times bestselling author, steered me in this direction. She generously offered me advice on self-publishiing as opposed to the traditional "brick and mortar" store concept. I felt I can reach a wider audience as well because I can charge less for the books. I just hope people will find them, read them, and enjoy them.

Well, first of all, I wouldn't say I'm a success yet! But Smashwords allows me a forum to get my books out there for people to read.

Writing is fun and rewarding in and of itself. I don't consider myself "an author", but then, I'm not sure what really qualifies someone to be "an author". It's gratifying to write a story (which takes me about two years), and then have people read them and like them. It's gratifying to get better at the craft of writing (and I'm certainly on a steep learning curve there.) I enjoy any and all positive comments. We writers have fragile egos, so I probably won't enjoy any critical comments. Having said that, I learn the most from constructive criticism, even if I don't like hearing it :-)

Right now, I only have about five fans, and I'm related to most of them. I will answer that question when I get a true fan base.

I'm working on a fourth book, called "Fracture". I've learned not to tell people what the new book is about because when I write a story, it's a fluid thing until I'm done.

I like Michael Crighton, Dan Brown, Vince Flynn, Lee Child, Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Michael Baldacci, James Michner, Ann Raynd, and others. I read a variety of indie authors, who I've never heard of (such as myself).

Spitting firewood, karate. Now-a-days, I seem to spend a lot of time actually in one form or another of the writing process.

When I was in high school, I read James Clavel and Jame Michner books. If a book wasn't at least 1,000 pages, I wouldn't touch it. Strange, I know...

I am partial to thrillers, mysteries, and suspense. I like a good page turner. I only read a few pages a day so I need each page to be a grabber.