AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY  

I was born November 20, 1959 in Bakersfield, California. I live there for only about three years before my family moved to Santa Barbara, California. I attended grades K-12 in that wonderful city. My summers were spent on the various beaches the coastal city offered. I received my scuba diving certificate before my driver’s license. My interests at that time were scuba and snorkeling, beachcombing, reading, writing, music, art, volleyball, and science (in no particular order). I graduated in 1977 (before the internet, cell phones, and GPS were invented), and served a church mission for two years in Wisconsin. After that, I spent seven months at BYU on a cinematography scholarship, but that did pan out (pun intended). I returned to Santa Barbara and worked a couple years at an electronics research center before I realized a college education was the only way I’d avoid a dead-end career. I was good with trades, but they weren’t my main interest. Over the next four years, I attended Santa Barbara City College, UC Santa Barbara, and BYU majoring in biologic sciences. I also met my wife, Julie, while at BYU. I was then accepted to the University of Utah College of Pharmacy and graduated in 1990. I practiced in northern California for about six months before accepting a position with Kmart in Logan, Utah, January of 1991. I no longer work for Kmart, but I still practice pharmacy in lovely Cache Valley.

I began my literary career writing and illustrating short stories. I have always loved the craft of writing. An author takes a handful of words and, just by the way they are aligned, can cause a reader to sit on the edge of their seat, laugh, cry, reexamine their life, lose sleep, and sometimes, fall asleep. This fascinates me. And ever since I first held a book in my hands and was able to read the words on the page, I have wanted to learn to write. And, of course, to be published.

My first success came with cartoons published in Skin Diver Magazine, the Oceanographic Letter, and several in the New Era. I still dabbled with writing, but was too busy studying medicine to really devote much time to it. It wasn’t until I had graduated that I began to write seriously. Even then, it took nearly ten years before I had any success getting published.

My preferred reading genre is science-based thrillers, particularly the works of Andy Weir, Robin Cook, Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, and Michael Crichton. But I enjoy reading just about anything I get my hands on, fiction and nonfiction.