Look and Listen

Biography

I was born in a small Central Texas town in '60 and drifted around a lot after my first marriage. I'm currently on my third marriage (10+ years and counting!). I have a daughter (born in '81) from my first marriage. I'm a happy househusband who writes erotica (and other things), rides herd on four dawgs and tries not to go crazy due to the state of my country. You could say I'm extremely left-wing liberal (except where I'm not), anti-organized religion (except where I'm not), yellow-dawg Democrat (except where I'm not), Proud Texan (except where I'm not), member of the ACLU & Amnesty International. Anti-Death Penalty and Pro-Punishment, Pro-Choice, in favor of the legalization of marijuana and a firm believer in the Constitution of the United States of America... as it's written, not as this regime interprets it. As you might guess, I'm also more than a little weird. I discovered my love of writing at a young age, wrote a story for my high school newspaper that won an Interscholastic League Press Conference Award. Then after high school (and a year in college as a theology/philosphy major) moved from the small town that had spawned me (and the other small town I'd gone to college in) to Dallas, Texas, where I wrote (and even worse, read aloud) a lot of really angsty free-form prose/poetry garbage, most of which I'm heartily ashamed of. Produced a lot of venom-filled rants, only some of which I'm ashamed of. And then I quit writing for somewhere between ten and fifteen years (dates are kind of hazy as this was a very unsettled time in my life and I was doing a lot of drugs). I was convinced that the only reason anyone ever said I had talent was out of pity or out of bias as friends of mine. Then in early 2005, I was corresponding with an erotica author whose work I admired and she encouraged me to give it a try, selling me with the line "All you need to write erotica is a fantasy... everyone has a fantasy." Sure enough, found out I was pretty good at it, although as time has gone on the erotic content of my work has shrunk. I don't write 'romantica', I'm not here to phrase things in pretty purple prose... I'm profane, so are my characters. I don't pretend to write for women, I write for myself. I write erotic fantasy and horror (so far), I'm not real interested in high-brow erotica. To me erotica is a part of a story, not the story in and of itself (with the rare 'stroke story' exception). At its very least, it's pulling open the 'bedroom door' and having a good long look within, for no reason other than it makes us feel good. September 2007, #1 story on StorieOnline.net: Oil of Roses Honorable Mention at Desdmona.com. 2000-Word Short Story Contest: Stockholm Syndrome 2nd Place, Desdmona.com Hard-Boiled Sex Contest: Last Exit Before A Dead End Published in Group MVP Publishing's "Keep It In The Family" magazine, Vol. 2, #1: "Taking Their Vows"

Inspiration

Robert Heinlein, in every phase of his career. Not a lot of literary style, but he spun a good yarn. Likewise Stephen King... when he's at his best, he's telling a good story. When he's at his worst he's obscuring a story behind loads of bullshit. Minor influences are far too many to mention, but as they occur to me, I'll add them here.