He has resided in and has visited many places in the world, all of which have contributed in some way to his own published writing. He has literally traveled throughout the world, on numerous occasions. He has lived in Finland, Germany, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He gained the wanderlust to see the world, to experience other cultures, at an early age, and this desire has never left him. If anything, it has only gained in intensity as he has aged.
Among the many unique things that have happened to him in his world travels, he has walked the streets of Istanbul with a detective, searching for a pickpocket who got him good. He has ridden on the back of a motorcycle in Tehran while the driver, who spoke not one word of English, pointed out all the sights to him. He has wrestled an Iranian soldier who tried to break into his hotel room in Tehran. He has had the paint completely stripped from his car as he drove across Saudi Arabia in a sandstorm. He has stood on the stage of a busy nightclub in Tokyo, singing “She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes” to an audience feeling no pain from the Sake they were drinking. He has been chased by a family of mongooses (yes, that is the correct spelling) on the idyllic Caribbean island of St. Croix. And that is just the beginning of his long list of worldly adventures.
As a recent retiree from a forty-year career as a professor of writing, he now lives in Southern California wine country with his wife, Kitty, and their two adorable rescue cats.
His latest book is the contemporary fiction, Triangle of Hope.
Visit him on Facebook.
Can you tell us what your new book is about?
The triangle of the title is three people suffering tragic circumstances in their lives and the healing that inspires so many others when their three paths suddenly converge in a small Irish village.
Can you tell us a little about your main and
supporting characters?
Clint Westerly has lost his wife and his will to keep on going. Tanya Wilshire has also encountered a string of personal adversities, any of which on its own would bring others to their knees. And elderly Seamus Harrington has lived under a cloud of derision and been bullied for the past 50 years and more by the fellow townspeople in the little Irish village of his birth.
My book is set in Las Vegas, Rome, Scotland, and Ireland. As an avid international traveler, I chose these particular locations purposefully since they are all places I know well and are a perfect fit for the storyline.
How long did it take you to write your book?
I wrote for months, but, of course, that followed a year or more of tossing things around in my head before actually putting the first word to paper.
What has been the most pivotal point of your writing
life?
During my stay-at-home time during the worldwide pandemic, I was able to give enormous time to my writing, giving birth to my latest book, SAVORING THE WORLD: HIT AND MISADVENTURES – a memoir.
What kind of advice would you give other authors?
If you have an urge to write, then keep plugging away.
It is a truism that “a writer is a person who writes.” Writing is a lonely
business, and there are so many distractions and excuses to be used to put off
the hard part: actually putting pen to paper, or, in today’s world, putting
your fingers to the keyboard.
