: About Me

I was born in what was then the somewhat rural Ft. Pierce, Florida, in 1958. I was blessed to have parents that did not instill negative beliefs in me, religious or social. I like to think I would have risen above them whatever I was taught, but the impact of my early socialization no doubt contributed positively towards who I am today.

I remember Jim Crow, and the integration of the schools that occurred in my area in 1972. My mother taught in a "black
school", Garden City Elementary, when I was 9 years old. As an adult, I have spoken to black contemporaries about their parallel experiences of segregation and integration. This has had a lasting impact on my life.

From the ages of 19-34, I lived briefly in the Tidewater area of Virginia, and Eastern Tennessee. Most of that time however, was spent in Ohio: Delaware; Marion; Columbus; and Cincinnati.

While in Central Ohio, I attended the Ohio State University and majored in history. My specialization was early industrial Britain. However, studying history brought me much more than just a knowledge of the connection between the Lancashire cotton mills and the American South. What I got from the study of history is the ability to think and re-think, to analyze, to question, and to grow. I have the ability to go into to a project with one notion, but follow the evidence wherever it might lead me, even if I may not agree with the destination.

Personal issues drew me home in the early 90's, and I began a career in the citrus industry. This is where I thought I would spend the rest of my days. Nature intervened. In the form of love, hurricanes and canker.

Today, I am living in rural Ontario, Canada. I am enamored of this place as only an "outsider" can be. I am hoping I can find a new career in freelance writing.

I think my childlike curiosity and wonder, my experience, my ability to argue black or white and ultimately come up with gray, and my education will serve me well in this pursuit.

My passion is ...

creating.

I know too much about ...

poker.

My parents always told me ...

to be careful.

My childhood ambition ...

was to breed dogs.

My favorite memory ...

is looking at the sun through a large telescope.

Why I write ...

I love the entire creative process of it.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

I am reading River of Grass, by Marjory Stoneman Douglas; The Anatomy of Motive, by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker; and Hermann Hesse's Demian. I am watching the Sopranos.

My first job ...

was at McDonald's.

My best moment ...

is yet to come.

My inspiration ...

Nature. And those few rare human souls that came before me and made a positive impact.

Arts & Humanities > Horror, Mystery & Suspense Book reviews: Cell, by Stephen King

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What would happen if, right this instant, a plague transmitted through a cell phone signal was to strike everyone within earshot of a wireless call? In Stephen King's Cell (2006), this is just what happens at 3:03 p.m. October 1 in a year both post-9/11 and post-Katrina. In the moments following the initial "Pulse", as this latest human disaster comes to be called, most cell-phone owners not yet affected react in a quite predictable way. "People...would want to know what was happening, and if their families were all right. They would[reach]for their car phones, their cell phones, without a...

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