Hi! So, okay, a little about me.
I used to work in manufacturing. When I say “used to” I mean for over twenty years. When I say “manufacturing” I mean I did everything from making signs, components for medical equipment, handles for airplane seats, and bearings for submarines to planning, scheduling, and/or supervising the making of those same bearings before graduating to complete ships for the United States Navy. That last part makes me sound pretty important, but I assure you my mark on the shipbuilding industry was so small the people doing the actual work have never missed me.
I left in 2017, four plus years after waking up naked in a hospital under a pile of still-folded blankets not knowing why. To be clear, I didn’t know the why behind the blankets, or why I was there at all. As my wife then informed me, I had been crashed into and thrown from my three-week-old sweet ass Harley-Davidson Softail Deluxe, totaling the bike, and starting the counter on medical bills that would far surpass the cost of it, all while I was sleeping. And apparently because I’m so averse to wearing clothes in bed, I kept peeling off my hospital gown despite not really knowing who or where I was.
Fast forward to the point where my lawyer’s assurances came true—that I wouldn’t merely be able to pay my medical bills, but that in a case like mine the victim typically receives compensatory damages in the amount of two to three times medical expenses. “Well, damn,” is probably what I thought at the time, and I wasn’t going to complain. I wasn’t going to say no, either. It fucking hurt. Not to mention, I love and miss being on a motorcycle, and don’t plan to be ever again.
It’s a lot to get into, but that’s how I got started writing full time. I would love to be able to say I took the traditional route, plugging away through my teens and twenties, publishing a few short stories, getting an agent, an editor, and then maybe, at long last, a book deal. But between working long hours on my feet, often through the night, and being home with the kids while my wife was working herself, I was tired. I also had stunningly low confidence, and a debilitating ignorance as to what writing actually is. Hint: Even the greats don’t just fire up the computer and churn out their next bestseller in one sitting.
Who knew? Not me.
Anyway, thanks for visiting. Stay as long as you like. Check out my books, make a donation if you feel so inclined, and be sure to follow me on social. You’d be surprised what all those numbers—the follows and shares and likes—can do for us creative types trying to make a living on our art. Of course, it means even more knowing that people want to read my words, and are. Otherwise, I’d just be talking to myself.