Though I grew up in sedate Omaha, Nebraska, my adult life has been one of travel and excitement. My thirty-two year high-tech business career required that I travel globally and live in Germany for five years during the Cold War. While based in Europe and afterward, I ventured to scores of extraordinary and sometimes-verboten places. I took up writing as a hobby during these trips, often documenting my experiences while aboard lengthy flights. I published my first non-fiction book, appropriately titled OVER SEAS, in 1991.

In the year 2000, I retired from my role as Vice-President, Human Resources for a large corporation, allowing more time for writing and travel. Nine years before tensions with Cuba abated, I organized the first senior men's softball team to visit and compete in Havana, Cuba. In 2014, my son Christopher and I toured Beijing, China and North Korea. Christopher and I then traveled to Vladivostok, Russia and Seoul, South Korea (and again into North Korea, briefly) early in 2017. The next year, sons Christopher, Roger, Brett, and I toured Kiev (Ukraine), Chernobyl, and Moscow, Russia together. (These trips are chronicled in the ESSAYS section of this webpage.) My family and I regularly share boating holidays in the Caribbean and the Bahamas. More off-beat trips and boating expeditions are in the planning stages.

My journeys and life experiences have put me in many unusual circumstances. I have recorded some of my personal adventures in e-books that are shown at this website. In early 2017, I published (paperback and ebook) my first fictional novel, CRASH COURSE, an action-thriller based primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two sequels--BLOODY WATERS, set in Key Largo, Florida, and DRUG ISLAND, set the British Virgin Islands--ultimately completed the “Jackson Boyd Trilogy” of fictional thrillers.

For me, writing is a blessing, but I am most thankful for good health and the love of my family--wife Julie, five wonderful adult children, and two adorable grandsons. Julie and I split time between the San Francisco (CA) Peninsula and Key Largo, Florida.

Why write?

Writing is both a challenging puzzle and a joy. Wordsmithing actual experiences--non-fiction--is about putting memories and facts into an interesting structure and an entertaining flow while sharing the excitement of personal discovery.

Writing fiction is a LOT tougher, be it in book or music form. At the highest level, the writer is still concerned about structure, flow, and (contrived) discovery. Because story details and characters are made up, however, one would think the writer feels total freedom. Not so. Obviously, the songs are very short stories, but they still require a sensible flow and an ending. Then, with songs, there is that whole rhyming thing.

The characters, the theme, and the results are all invented, that is true, But, a compelling read requires multiple storylines--some are dead ends--parallel timelines, and a set of diverse character identities and behaviors. And, unless writing science fiction, the settings need to be, for the most part, factual. Last, the confluence of the story lines needs to ratchet up the tension and result in a plausible, satisfying conclusion.

In summary, fiction is made-up drama (or humor) set, generally, in real places. It has so many fluid variables that many writers, including me, need spreadsheets to manage all the story elements. It is a mind-stretch, but it is also very satisfying when it seems to work.