I was born in 1949, and started my life as a city kid. At the end of the school year as a first grader I heard my parents discussing a possible move from the neighborhood that I knew. Since I was not privy to such information, so when the teacher asked, "Does anybody know if they will be moving at the end of the schoolyear? If so, please raise your hands." A few did, but I did not, since I wasn't sure. She then asked, "Are there any here who think that they might move away?" With that question, the rest in the class, including me, raised our hands. Then came the trip that summer that changed my life. We were heading somewhere in the backcountry, and had transferred to a jeep. We drove up this side road that became a dirt road. We were heading directly at this mountain, which had no houses on it, and then the road changed direction and paralleled the mountain. As we followed the dirt road, not much of one really, everything to the west suddenly dropped away. The land fell away into a valley with nothing to block what I was seeing. And for the first time it seemed that I could see forever - I had never in my life seen such a view. Eventually we reached this isolated ranch that literally was in the middle of nowhere. Little did I know at the time, that this isolated ranch would become our home for the next 47 years. As boys, my 2 brothers and I couldn't ask for anything better - a world to test ourselves against, and unlimited acres to roam, learn, and explore. In the end I was the oldest of 5 children. I had 3 brothers and 1 sister, and we all loved living as we were. In the first 3 years we, as a family, were tested. 2 wildfires came close to claiming our home, and in that 3rd year a military fighter crashed on the property and almost killed us as the wing from the aircraft flew over the house and landed on a hill behind our home. We were surrounded by fire. The aircraft had crashed at night, and the whole area was lit with the orange flickering glow of the many fires. I was 9 at the time. I feel that this final incident had an influence on my life as later I worked towards becoming a firefighter. I worked with the local volunteer fire department, and then when old enough joined the United States Forest Service as a wildland firefighter. I found that I loved the work. Pay was poor, the hours long and hard, but so satisfying when you were part of a team that had been successful in suppressing a wild fire. Then I was drafted in 1969. I spent 25 months in Viet Nam, where I was in the signal corps. Not the best of times with so much of the country against the war, and personally seeing what was happening to both the civilians, and the military. It was a time for one to become depressed. There had been a couple of suicides while I was there, and many turned to drugs or alcohol as a way out. I left the US Army as an E5 Sargeant in 1972. I went back to the USFS and continued as a wildland firefighter until an injury caused me to leave in 1975. I then had a couple of businesses before returning to civil service. I went to work for the Post Office, eventually retiring as a Postmaster. It is probably one of the most difficult jobs out there, even though the public view is quite the opposite. Throughout my life I had a desire to write, but time after time circumstances continued to get in the way of such a career. When I was in my 30's I married into an AMF (Already Made Family), thus taking on a heavy responsibility right from the beginning. I am happy to say that the woman that I married and I are still quite in love with each other, and do not see this changing anytime, period. It took retiring to finally have time to write, and since retiring I have written 4 books, with the first to be released (probably as you read this, or, as of the end of 2011). The Woman in the Snow, is a story of a young city woman and her struggle to survive alone during a snowstorm in the wilderness. This story is Christian based.
My strongest genre is Sci-Fi, although this first offering is Contemporary Woman's Christian Fiction. This first book is a standalone story, while the second book, that I released on June 20, 2012, is the first in a series. The name of this book is, "Time of Isolation", book 1 in the Survival Series, with book 2 Desperate to Survive, released in November 2012 - all Science Fiction. A third, possibly available in 2014 that's within the Survival Universe is complete and presently being edited. There is a second series for which 3 are written and are presently being edited. All are in the Discovery series and are titled, The Ones Before, Discovery, and An Ancient Fire. I have plans on releasing all three this year, 2014. I have plenty of writing and editing still ahead of me. As it stands at this moment, I have plenty of ideas and stories to keep me busy for the next several years, and as any author will tell you, I hope that these stories will both entertain, and maybe even make you think a little.