Yes, that's me...

On a hike in the mountains of Sardinia with the family. We got a little lost, but fortunately we had taken a picture of the map at the trailhead. A French family had followed us, thinking we looked like we knew where we were going. We had a good laugh when I waited for them to catch up and asked them for directions. We ended up backtracking and made it back to the trailhead just before dark. Good times

Currently, I live...

Near South Lake Tahoe, California, in the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains with my wife, daughters, two doggies , and a kitty. The wilderness in my backyard is a great playground where I dabble in a variety of outdoor activities like mountain biking, hiking, and skiing. I also enjoy the occasional thrill of seeing wildlife like deer, black bears, coyotes, and more rarely a bobcat.

Adventure and travel...

Have been part of my DNA since I was born. My father, a civil engineer, followed his career around the globe, moving every couple of years for a new job. Many of these jobs were in exotic foreign locations like Saudi Arabia, Peru, and Indonesia. Even when the location was less than spectacular, my mother, an enthusiastic artist, had a knack for making every place seem like the adventure of lifetime. She would throw caution to the wind and take us on excursions to places few westerners would seek out on their own. All in the name of art.

I guess it rubbed off because I fell into a similar pattern early in life. I worked a variety of interesting jobs and places, from the slime lines in Alaska to being a backcountry cook in Yosemite National park. I spent a lot of time wandering around and surviving my own stupid antics. All the while collecting stories of my own that I now draw inspiration from.

As for the writing...

It's bloody hard. Nevertheless, I keep plugging away at it. I've accumulated a trove of rejections to attest to this. Along the way I've also had some minor successes and encouragements, like placing in the semifinals and finals of a few contests or a hand written note in the margin of a rejection. This always reminds me of this Cheers episode Everyone Imitates Art. At the end of the day, I write because I love to write, but frankly a lot of it is crap, and that's ok, because I'm not going to share it. You're welcome. I'll just call it practice, until now. With that said, I think I have finally created something worth publishing. To that end I hired numerous professional editors from the industry to help me polish the story as much as possible. I also entered a contest where anonymous readers can read and score your book. I have received 5 star reviews from all four readers. It's my deepest hope that you will enjoy my debut novel, Case Connor and The Trials of Sand and Fire.

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