Becoming a Writer
In the beginning...
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I was born in the six-room Santa Clara Valley Hospital in Santa Paula, California. It's now an old folks home, so maybe I'll go out through the same door I came in. I grew up as a simple southern California surfer boy ten miles down the road in Ventura. |
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Who knows when, or where, or why the need to write things down will first strike. I'd been going to the mountains since I was eight. But in the summer of 1971, when I was 17, something special happened. My cousin and I crossed the Sierra east to west over some pretty rugged, mostly trackless, terrain. It was then I first experienced how vital a sense of place was to me. When I returned, I started writing stories. This is on the summit of Electra Peak, just south of Mt. Lyell. That's Banner Peak and Mt. Ritter in the distance. We made it up Banner. Ritter was tougher. |
Slideshows (scroll over each photo frame to move forward or backward)
Europe and Japan
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At U.C. Santa Cruz I was an English major, with German and French language emphases. After college, I traveled as much as I could. I spent two years teaching English in Japan. What a strange, strange trip that was: |
I traveled to Europe, mostly to France. In Paris, I hung out with the would-be writers at Shakespeare & Co. and at a bar called Le Mazet with the buskers who gathered to count the take and swap songs and partners (musical and otherwise). I scribbled some more.
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Palo Alto and Minneapolis
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Eventually, work caught up with me. I put in seven years with the post office in Palo Alto. Near the end, I edited and self-published (in those days, you had to contract with a real printer) a collection of short stories called Men & Women of Letters -- stories by my fellow letter carrier-writers from around the country. I was thirty-six when it was off to Minnesota for eight years. There, I started writing as a journalist in the alternative press world of Minneapolis, much of it at the Twin Cities Reader. In one photo with me, on the right, is the inimitable Burl Gilyard (left), along with the irascible John Schultz. |
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Other interests developed...
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Along the way, I drew, painted, sculpted (left) and photographed (right) when the mood struck. I kept writing. |
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aaaand... back to the mountains
All the while, California and the mountains were never far from my mind. Two small selections fom my years of tramping up and down granite:
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I entered a motorcycle phase, began trying to stay in shape. By this time, I had been in journalism at least fifteen years. I started writing my first novel, The Land of Sunshine. When the journalism world went into decline (not long after these photos were taken), I started writing fiction. I went to the Squaw Valley Writers Workshops in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 entered the MFA program at San Francisco State. I received my degree Jan. 6, 2014. |
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To sum up: Journalism
I spent twenty years in journalism and communications as a writer, editor and communications specialist. I worked for the Monterey Herald, the Salt Lake City Weekly, the Independent Weekly (Durham, NC), Santa Cruz Weekly, the Twin Cities Reader, and the Monterey Peninsula College Foundation, among others. In 1994 I served as the Deputy Communications Director for the Ann Wynia for U.S. Senate campaign in Minnesota. (We lost.) My experience includes investigative journalism, breaking news (including web posts), column writing, profiles, book reviews, arts reviews, business reporting, politics, design and layout, newsletters, press releases, script writing (for video biography), live blogging, and consulting with business and political leaders on communications strategy.
I have contributed to these publications: the Monterey County Herald, San Jose Mercury, Los Angeles Daily News, Salt Lake Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul Legal Ledger, Raleigh News & Observer, Orange County Register, Ventura Star, Merced Sun Star, Hollister Free Lance, Twin Cities Reader, City Pages (Minneapolis), Corporate Report (Minneapolis), MPLS/St. Paul Magazine, Minnesota (U. of M.), Minnesota Monthly, The Midwesterner, Minnesota Journal of Law & Politics, The Surveyor (Minneapolis), Collection Building (Libraries), Friends of Financial History, Salt Lake City Weekly, Santa Cruz Weekly, North Bay Bohemian, Metro Silicon Valley, Independent Weekly (Durham, NC), Colorado Springs Independent, Adventure Sports, NewWest.net, Peninsula Times Tribune, and Hungry Mind Review.
I have contributed to these publications: the Monterey County Herald, San Jose Mercury, Los Angeles Daily News, Salt Lake Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, St. Paul Legal Ledger, Raleigh News & Observer, Orange County Register, Ventura Star, Merced Sun Star, Hollister Free Lance, Twin Cities Reader, City Pages (Minneapolis), Corporate Report (Minneapolis), MPLS/St. Paul Magazine, Minnesota (U. of M.), Minnesota Monthly, The Midwesterner, Minnesota Journal of Law & Politics, The Surveyor (Minneapolis), Collection Building (Libraries), Friends of Financial History, Salt Lake City Weekly, Santa Cruz Weekly, North Bay Bohemian, Metro Silicon Valley, Independent Weekly (Durham, NC), Colorado Springs Independent, Adventure Sports, NewWest.net, Peninsula Times Tribune, and Hungry Mind Review.
Creative writing, and beyond
In 2009 I launched my career as a fiction writer by attending the Squaw Valley Writers Workshops. I returned in 2010, then entered the MFA creative writing program at San Francisco State, where I finished my novel, The Land of Sunshine.
Today, I draw on my experience in fiction and nonfiction to conduct writing workshops at Chateau du Pin near Champtocé-sur-Loire, France; at Palaia in Tuscany; and on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Go to www.writeaways.com/ or email me about the program for 2014. France: Oct. 3-10 and Italy Oct. 12-18. I also teach memoir writing classes privately, and continue to write, edit and coach freelance.
Today, I draw on my experience in fiction and nonfiction to conduct writing workshops at Chateau du Pin near Champtocé-sur-Loire, France; at Palaia in Tuscany; and on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Go to www.writeaways.com/ or email me about the program for 2014. France: Oct. 3-10 and Italy Oct. 12-18. I also teach memoir writing classes privately, and continue to write, edit and coach freelance.
