I was born the night after Halloween in Sacramento, California, though we lived in Folsom near the prison. According to legend, if I had been born just one day earlier I would have been able to "see and talk to spirits." Instead, I only hear voices.
My first "critical acclaim" occurred in high school when my creative writing teacher praised my story's opening line: "The neighbor's yard looked like a three-day beard." The teacher said, "You may never write anything good again, but that is a great line!" I was happy to hear this, but of course focused on the eerily prescient "...may never write anything good again..."
After a decade-long detour in Los Angeles, I have been calling middle Tennessee home for the past 30+ years.
I was joking about hearing voices, by the way. My humor is sometimes difficult to detect. The point of my stories is often difficult to detect, too, but are inspired by my greatest fears and/or frustrations. Writing things down in a safely fictionalized way helps me to better understand myself and the world around me. It's a sort of DIY exorcism.
My available titles are "Dub's Dilemma", "The Lazy Pug Cafe," "Another Way: Beyond the Status Quo," "Last Train Out," "Lottery President," "Operation Detour," and "Temporary Insanity."