Frequently Asked Questions

Okay, maybe not so frequently asked. It's not like people call me up to interview me, or are sending me thousands of e-mails asking the same questions over and over. But if they did, they would probably be these questions, and these would probably be my answers.

Can you give us a little background so your readers know where you come from? (top)

I was born and raised in the Chicago area, and I live on the north side of the city now. My family lived in the city until I was 4 or 5 before migrating with everyone else to the suburbs. The suburb I grew up in, Park Forest, was a model development suburb, which sounds horrible. But there were a lot of pretty cool people in Park Forest. My father was an advertising writer and my mother a painter, and they surrounded themselves with interesting and flamboyant friends. Of course, they all drank like mad and there were problems associated with that, but it was an interesting childhood. It certainly wasn't boring.

How did you come to writing? (top)

I am definitely not one of those writers who have been writing stories since they were little kids. Instead, I had several spurts of intense writing, followed by years, if not decades, of not writing. When I was an adolescent, I had crushes on all kind of celebrities - Billie Jean King (a hero to me), Liza Minnelli, Barbra Striesand - an eclectic group. It was almost as if I were a gay boy, except for the Billie Jean King part. I'd write complicated stories that involved me and the celebrity du jour falling in love and I still live in terror that these stories will show up somewhere on the internet. In college I took a playwriting class and managed to win third prize in a contest held by the school. Sounds good, until I add that there were only four entries in the contest. Still.

Many more years passed before I wrote again. I went through a period in the 90's when I was fascinated by computers. I stumbled upon the world of text-based computer games, a genre dominated by Dungeons and Dragons stuff that I didn't play and didn't understand. But I wanted to experiment with the format, so I wrote a text based mystery game called "Murder at the Folkestone Inn." It featured Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis as characters in a weekend murder mystery of the British drawing room type. To my surprise, I was notified that the game had won some sort of Honorable Mention. You can still find it on the internet, though I doubt it would work on any of today's computers. Five years ago some guy in Germany e-mailed me and asked if I was the author of "Murder at the Folkestone Inn," which struck me as such a great example of how small the internet has made our world.

Finally, and not until I reached the ripe age of 50, I started to write short stories and post them on the internet. I was buoyed by some enthusiastic early feedback and this time I continued to write. The fact that I could put stuff out on the internet and get feedback had an awful lot to do with me keeping at it in the early days. I'm sorry to say I don't really post on the internet anymore. I was lucky enough to have my short stories picked up by print publications, which usually precludes them appearing on the internet. I've been concentrating on novels lately, but still try to write a story a year.

Do you have a writing process? (top)

No. I'm trying to establish one, and that's the hardest thing. I work as a real estate agent, and the very nature of that work is that it's unpredictable. I continually fail in any attempt to "book" time for writing. If someone wants to see a property, I will cancel the appointment with my writing because I have to represent my clients first. Still, there's plenty of time for me to get writing in. I just have to learn to sit down and write when the time is there. Kind of like politicians learning to nap at the drop of a hat. I have found, however, that I get a lot done when I go away somewhere to write. I like going to a local retreat center to write, and I've applied to some writer's residencies. I love the idea of going away somewhere to have nothing to do but write. What luxury.

What are you working on now? (top)

I've just finished editing Runaway, which will be published by BSB in March 2012. I've gotten started on a new novel, tentatively titled Olive Street House, which is set in a women's halfway house. I began the book while on a writing residency in Basin, Montana in September of 2011 and managed to crank out a good chunk of the book. There really isn't anything else to do in Basin.

In addition to the fact that you work as a real estate agent, what else can you tell us about your life. (top)

It can all be summed up in one word - Linda. We've been together for over 10 years now and we couldn't be happier. She's really the reason I've allowed myself to risk writing and putting my writing out in the world. She's been my biggest supporter and my source of safety and security. Plus, I'm crazy about her. We live in a great townhouse that sits in front of the Chicago River, a little slice of nature in our beloved city, and life is great.