Look and Listen

Biography

I grew up in New Mexico, which had a huge influence on my being. You live close to the sky, the air is thin, and you notice nature before you notice your fellow man. This is also a place of science. White Sands Proving Ground, Sandia Labs, and Los Alamos provide a high ratio of PhDs per square mile. I became an engineer, loved the space race, ordered my life using the scientific method, and then got drafted into the Vietnam War - the second big influence. I spent a small career as a C-130 navigator, command center Winnie, and as an instructor to lead new recruits down the same path. Afterwards, engineer rounded up my careers. I'm retired now in many ways, but not relaxed. I found writing late in life, but enjoy each and every action verb and try to make them part of my life. When you’re over the hill, the view in front of you is so much clearer and exhilarating.

Inspiration

Song writing and the love of music is what influenced me most to become a prose writer - really. Songs are short stories with notes. The problem is they are fleeting. They have little staying power unless your last names are either McCartney or Lennon. With more time on my hands, writing a full blown song became a novel. I love living in the fantasy world of the story while it unfolds. The days go by and I am at peace with the world, mainly, because I'm not in it, during the time the story unfolds. I write from a stream of consciousness. So far, I have not story-boarded the plot. I don't know the ending, until it hits me in the face, then it gets exciting, and I can feel the way it needs to go. I like adventure stories best. I liked Dan Brown’s books – sorry. I like Clive Custler and Michael Crichton. I loved Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. I’ve read Linda Howard. She scares me. I just read one of her old books and it was eerily similar to one of my stories is one area. There are many others, but generally I don’t read a lot, mainly because I don’t have the time. I realize reading is a key ingredient to writing, but frankly, I would need another lifetime. What I do is read about the topics that I will write about. This research phase includes reading other authors that I think are exciting. I can gain energy synergism from this while I'm in the writing process. It fires my imagination. I would have to conclude this section with; I am a work in progress. I am learning more about writing everyday. I will use more intense verbiage that covers the reader with the dust and sweat of the protagonist while struggling to find the rat that set him up to take the rap. But most of all, I am an independent writer that still retains his copyright of soul.