I am not sure if many people actually sit down and work out a plan for their lives. For some reason, I found it necessary to write down and set out to do a certain number of things in the lifespan that I was allotted. At the time, I really had no idea how long that would be, so I thought I had better get on with it. The first thing on the list was to go to college and learn how to do art. I had played around with it for a good part of my high school education and I was fairly good at it and I found it to be quite a bit of fun. I figured if I had to do something for the rest of my life it had better be fun. The second thing, of much less importance, was to write.

I had a bunch of pretty good English teachers in high school and a very good creative writing class which showed me that I wasn’t half bad at writing, and again, it was fun. Well, one fun thing at a time for now, let’s do the art stuff and see how that goes. Forty years later, I was running out of steam to keep up with the art. I needed a change of direction and a breather from the daily grind of my art job, (Graphics Art Director at the Standard-Examiner newspaper). So, after having done nothing but scribble down ideas, short outlines, make little sketches, and read for those 40 years since college, I started writing. And writing, it just came out, I finished one novel then started another. After that second one, which was a lot better then the first, having learned a considerable amount about writing by doing it, then I started another. Sudden job cuts found me without daily employment and so I kept writing, doing a cartoon book and finally trying to self-publish my first novel.

Of course, that didn’t turn out well. There are literally a million people out there publishing their own books. It is a very crowded field and much less then one percent get anywhere with it. Did I want to succeed, yes, of course. But there was the fun, creative aspect that I craved more then anything, so I mostly didn’t care that I was not professionally successful at it for the time being. Now 10 years later with 3 completed novels, one 3/4 finished and 3 more starts, I thought I had better do something more with this writing thing. I started by getting a good editing program and then re-writing and re-editing and then doing it again, then again. After sitting on my first book for the last couple of years, I pushed myself to once again try to publish and sell it. So now we will see what happens, I signed up for a publishing and distributing platform, if I sell something they get their cut, and I get a couple of bucks. Now, my first book, Field Trip, is out there again with the second novel to follow in a few months. Publishing world watch out, there is no stopping me now.

(A self portrait of me in my junior year at Utah State. I am on my way to L.A. for a school spring break trip to art studios, galleries, advertising agencies and such.)