This is where I toe the ground and mutter "aw shucks."

It's not a false modesty either. I think I'm like most writers. We prefer to stay out of the spotlight and let our work speak for us. If we were extroverts, we'd be politicians or actors. Of course, one of the fun things about being a writer is that we can (vicariously) be whomever we want.

"So can actors" you say? Well, sure. But without us they'd be stuck being themselves. Poor saps.

Bio Bits

I was born in 1951 in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. I've been married twice and have 2 sons (well known to readers of Baron It All as #1 and #2). I graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1974 with a BA in Journalism. For the last 18 years I've lived in Bowmanville, Ontario, a small-but-growing town about 40 miles east of Toronto.

I hitchhiked a lot as a youth. First for 2-5 days at a time in my mid-teens and usually within a few hundred miles of home. Then out to Vancouver, BC for a few weeks, a distance of nearly 3,000 miles. I celebrated my 20th birthday on a beach in Scotland and spent several months that year hitching around Europe. I left a piece of my soul on the Greek island Cephalonia (also known as Kefalonia). I need to write about that someday. Remind me.

My work resume is littered with typical writer-type occupations. At various times I've been a farm labourer, worm picker, landscaper, social worker, exercise machine demonstrator (yeah, it was laughable - feel free) darkroom technician, salesclerk, manager of the fishing section of a sporting goods store and manager of a furniture store. Right now I write full time, mostly nonfiction articles and humourous essays.

Hobbies

Well, there's fishing. No real surprise there. It's been a life-long love and most of what I could say about it, I already have in my book What Fish Don't Want You to Know. (You didn't miss the My Book section did you?)

If that sounds like I want you to buy it - well, of course I do. But I refuse to nag, whine, pester, annoy or beg. Much.

I enjoy another pastime which is a little unconventional for a person of my age (50-ish). I play video games. More specifically I play console RPG's (Role Playing Games). You can find a story about that in This n' That.

My favourite timewaster is playing online trivia. In this type of room a "bot" (a programmed bit of software) spits out trivia questions every 45 seconds. Players try to type in the correct answer first in order to score points. It's fun and edjoocashunal. And sure helps with spelling.

There's reading, of course. I read mostly fantasy these days. My love of the genre began when I was a teen and read George MacDonald's Lilith and William Morris' The Well at the World's End. Then I found Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The genre has been the flavour of the month in the publishing business for about a decade now and the popularity of the LOTR movies sure hasn't lessened it. I have mixed emotions. I'm pleased that fantasy writers have a chance for their work to be widely-read. I'm unhappy that the popularity wave has washed a lot of flotsam onto bookstore shelves. It's getting tougher to sort the wheat from the chaff and at CDN $10-$12 a pop for a mass market paperback, it stings when I make a bad choice.

There are two writers whose books I buy as soon as they become available in paperback. They have yet to disappoint me. Robin Hobb and Tad Williams can both be relied upon to provide entertaining, richly-textured and immersive works.

Well, as of this moment, there is absolutely nothing more that is remotely interesting about me.

If something happens, I'll let you know.