I moved around a lot as a child. I lived in Herleshausen, Germany, Santa Fe, Texas, and Alexandria, Louisiana during my early childhood. I spent the latter half of my childhood in Enid, Oklahoma, a city of about 50,000 people located in Northwestern Oklahoma, so I tend to think of that as my hometown. I wrote the majority of my first poetry book while living in Enid. All these places are reflected in my poetry on occasion. Poems like "Dining with your Skeleton," “East Maine Noms,” and "Blanton-Kiowa Line" are just some of many poems inspired by Enid. “That Which the Realtor Cannot Itemize” is about our familial home in Herleshausen. I haven’t written much about Santa Fe or Alexandria, aside from the occasional Mardi Gras reference, but that’s only because my memory fails me, having lived in those places at a very young age. The majority of my work was composed while living as an adult in Vallejo, California.

I remember making up stories with my dad when I was a little kid long before I could read or write, and that’s probably the root of my storytelling ability.

I started writing when I was 10 or 11 years of age. I started out writing short stories, fan fiction, and song lyrics. Around age 13 I became more interested in writing poetry, deeply influenced by the music of the 1960s, and that love stayed with me into adulthood. It has always been a way of coping with the world around me, raging against injustice, and a way of cheering myself up which later transformed into using my words to uplift others. I would scratch out poems even when other occupations were my livelihood. Though my first four books feature a large portion of poems written in my teens and twenties, the majority of my work was written in my 30s.

When I was eight years old I loved the television show Get Smart, and decided I wanted to be a spy, so I used to make up these elaborate stories in my head about what I observed and write them down in a notebook. One day I got in trouble for doing this at school. One teacher reprimanded me and took away my notebook, and another told me that I was very creative and should be a writer. It took a few more years for that idea to sink into my psyche.

I use the Kindle app on an iPad.

Going out to open mics and reading my work to a live audience has been the most effective. In my case charisma sells books.

I like retaining the rights to my work.

Its meditative quality.

My fourteenth poetry collection, Heaven is Portable, which will be out in 2022.

I enjoy walking in nature, bird watching, photography, spending time with my synagogue community, and listening to live music.

Usually, I'll get inspired when I am doing something else like being out in nature, listening to music, praying at synagogue, or trying to fall asleep. If I have my iPod or iPad near by, I will dictate some lines or record myself, and go back and transcribe and edit it later. If not, I'll grab the nearest piece of paper and jot it down, or if even that isn't available, I try to memorize it. If I get one line and make the time and space to receive more, more will easily follow in rapid succession. I compile all my poetry into a document with a table of contents over the course of six months to a year, so I have access to it while out performing. Around 100 pages, I form it into a book, cut out poetry that I no longer like, proofread, and publish.

I enjoy reading biographies of other creative people, and a lot of non-fiction books, namely history. I’ll also crack open a poetry book now and then.

I don’t own one. I write reclining in my bed most often.

I’m grateful for every person who has read my poetry or listened to me read. Your encouragement means the world to me.