about

"As I child, I suffered a privileged upper-middle class upbringing that in no way prepared me for the personal and professional disappointments of adult life."

It was during an 11th grade English class — in the midst of an overwhelmingly boring dissertation on post-WWI romantic poetry, from one of a litany underwhelming teachers — that I decided my future did not lie in the written word. I failed that English class and, as a writer, haven't looked back.
     I eventually graduated university with a degree in economics and politics, spent three years as a political speechwriter, took a job as a sports writer and somehow managed to con a long line of editors, who should have known better, into hiring me.
     An early ambition to pursue a career as a full-time photographer, helped my transition into television news production: it's one thing being able to write but (in that medium) it's more important to be able to know how to  frame a shot.
     Though Five Ring Circus (a satire of the Sydney Olympic Games) wasn't my first book, it was the first book that was actually carried through to commercial publication — thanks to its author's well rehearsed smoke and mirrors pitch. This book can still be purchased from booksellers with little or no literary standards. Alternately, search online and find Five Ring Circus on eBay (where a buck and a half is usually a good starting bid); remember unsigned copies are far more valuable.
     The real value, however, came from realizing that, no matter what you're selling and who you're selling it to, if you don't believe in it, how the hell will anybody else?