I'm a storyteller, nonfiction division. Opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Idaho Statesman, San Francisco Chronicle, and Idaho Dispatch. People who are offended by something I wrote usually find out it was something they ate. 

 

My journalistic work has been published in Esquire and Psychology Today. I broke into journalism writing features for Pacific Sun, an award-winning northern California newsweekly. None of the awards were mine, but always willing to share the limelight. 

 

I've published three non-fiction books, none in print at this point but generally available where used books are found. Authors don't earn royalties on second-hand books so even mentioning their availability is sheer altruism on my part. You're welcome.
 

Leaving the Left (Sentinel Books, 2006) is a coming of age story of sorts, focused around my longtime enjoyment of things political and my growing recognition that "liberal" and "left" aren't equivalent terms for the same territory, as I had assumed. Some people thought this meant I now endorsed everything associated with "the Right." Binary thinking at work.

 

I'm not keen on labels, but when pressed I identify as a classical or original liberal, high emphasis on freedom: of thought, speech, assembly, worship, and enterprise. Best antidote to bad speech is generally more speech, preferably better speech—that sort of thing. To date, Cancel Culture and the general sense of Shut Up Or Else don't seem to have led to many improvements in the skill set of being effectively human. 
 

Angels and Aliens (Addison Wesley, 1991) focuses on the UFO phenomenon from both historical and interpretive perspectives. I've long been interested in the literature and media coverage of UFOs and related paranormal anomalies. This book has its own page via the top level categories. 

 

To Be a Man (Tarcher Books, 1991) is an anthology of writings I edited on broad themes of men, msculinity, and manhood. Contributors include Robert Bly, Carl Jung, Ernest Hemingway, James Hillman, Franz Kafka and Norman Mailer. This work appeared before the contemporary idea that masculinity per se is "toxic" took hold. Do people who think like that include their fathers, brothers, sons, and nephews?

 

Besides being a writer, I'm a father and periodic skydiver, friend of canines and marathon runner emeritus, descendent of gladiators and gregarious introvert. I share my homestead with a golden retriever named Dorado and six cantankerous Rhode Island Red hens. 
 

True fact: Genetic testing reveals my people hail from a place called Doggerland, whose low-lying forests and wetlands gradually became inundated (time frame: 30,000 and 45,000 years ago). So roughly speaking, this ain't my first "climate change" rodeo. A native of Ohio and refugee from Northern California, I now call Idaho home.