Growing up in Chicago, my parents were avid readers who passed on to me a love of the written word, my earliest influences being Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Mad Magazine.
Inspired to become a writer, the notion of writing books was far too daunting, so I set my sights on screenwriting. My quest began with a college year-abroad in Japan where I served an internship with film director and writer, Masahiro Shinoda. While in Japan, I became immersed in Japanese Cinema, screening at least five films per week, an experience that profoundly impacted my thinking about storytelling.
My professional career included writing and directing; TV commercials, sitcoms, and finally feature films. Eventually, I tired of the pervasive agism and the development process, which had become writing by committee, and in which I felt like I was losing my voice. I left the film business, and wrote a book, a memoir, Blotto: Adventures in Alcoholism / Ruin to Recovery. It proved to be my most fulfilling writing experience. Encouraged, I wanted to write another book, but couldn’t find a subject matter compelling enough for the two years it would take to write. When Covid hit, I found myself in quarantine alone for a year with my dog, Baby. Having no one else to talk to, I talked to Baby, but found it frustrating when she wouldn’t talk back. Then it hit me, the idea for a new book - an isolated man with a talking dog, Hounded: A Love Story followed by The Yoyo Years, a fictionalized account my life with bipolar disorder. I am working on a new novel Gone Phishin’ about a man who gets hacked, losing his life savings, and meets his hacker (female) at an AA meeting.
I currently live steps to the beach an hour north of L.A. with Baby. I am employed as a peer support specialist for bipolar sufferers. And the writing is still going strong.