My home in Lemoore, CA

Turning 55, flowers from friends.

Squirrel the cat

The Big Read: To Kill A Mockingbird at 3 a.m.

Shopping in Alaska

The authors of Gone Coastal

I actually got a complaint that there wasn't enough about me in my bio section. Apparently, that's a serious oversight on my part, so here goes:

I'm a Navy brat, born in San Diego. We moved constantly. When I was ten, we were stationed at Lemoore, in the San Joaquin Valley of California. I found I had writing talent in the journalism classes and became editor of the high school newspaper. I graduated in the class of '69 (that's what the numbers in my e-addy means!).

With no money for college, I took a job as a Ma Bell operator in the Los Angeles area. I joined the Navy in 1972, at the end of the Vietnam era. I wanted to be a journalist in the military, but the Navy, in its wisdom, made me a dental tech. I found an outlet for my writing by volunteering as a stringer for base magazines

I got out of the Navy in 1976 and headed for the University of Fresno on the GI Bill. I worked as a photo journalist on a small Fresno newspaper that folded. I found a job in the Fresno Sheriff's Department and worked with an undercover narcotics team. I retired in 2003 and returned to Lemoore to take care of my parents and write fiction full-time.

The astrology? I learned that when I lived in Los Angles (the Age of Aquarius, remember?). I described the actual incident in “Fools Rush In.” I had to put it aside while in the military, started up again as soon as I was discharged. 

No husband, no children, seven cats, the proverbial little house with a white picket fence, and a very supportive home town. All that and writing in my favorite genre—mystery. Can it get any better?