I had hoped to be a writer after graduating from St. Edwards University in Austin, but family imperatives and minimum nutritional requirements argued for pragmatism, and that rode me through a series of enterprises, elected and appointed public service, a graduate degree from Harvard, higher education administration and professorship, and finally to consulting for businesses, government and non-profits. Along the way, I forgot where I started. I like to think it was a long, circuitous postponement, and it turns out it was a useful practical research that informed and inspired my first novel, Laguna, which won an IPPY Gold Medal in 2007. In 2016 I began writing full time. I guess you could say that at last I have come to the beginning.