Originating from St. Louis County, Missouri, it was during my senior year in high school that I discovered more than a casual interest in reading, chiefly because of my college-prep English class and frequent trips to a local bookstore. It was that Senior English class and its teacher and all the wonderful books he had us read and critique in class discussions and what he called written “critical comments” that lit the flame for me. As part of the final exam we selected individual topics, conducted research at libraries, and wrote a detailed term paper, using and demonstrating standard, accepted protocols that we would need to be prepared for in the upcoming college years. I headed south with the Missouri Pacific Railroad, long since absorbed by Union Pacific, the day after graduating to put together some money for college and packed some paperbacks and my cheap guitar to keep me company since I was now venturing out into the world on my own.  The three months in Texas and Louisiana during that long, hot southern summer would yield valuable life lessons along with the hard-earned money. And, many years later, that summer would be the inspiration for my debut novel, Southern Passage.   

At summer’s conclusion, I attended Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg, and after remaining there a while, enrolled at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. With a major in Sociology and several hours in Anthropology and Psychology, I graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

After a thirty-three and a half year career in a Missouri governmental agency, I retired in 2006. With the newfound free time, I completed my first novel, SOUTHERN PASSAGE. As is true with many first-novelists, I took what I knew for the endeavor and wrote about it, falling back on my love of all-things-railroading and memories of childhood train trips with my dad and brothers for inspiration. THE KELLSTRUMM PARADOX, a sci-fi near future multiverse thriller, followed closely on the heels of that debut novel.

My interest in playing guitar took off as a high school junior and has continued to this day. I’ve written several songs over the years and my brother and I periodically drag out our Martins and entertain ourselves while working our way through the beers and the words and chords on fading sheets of my music and his.