As an emerging writer, I was honored to learn in late December that my story "Stuffy" has been awarded First Place in the YA Category of the Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards.
When I was eight years old, I had a story published in our local newspaper, about a winged horse named Black Death. My writing career suffered a long interruption as I grew up and became an actor, middle school teacher, non-profit director, business owner and mayor of a small town. Having got all that out of my system, I have returned to my first love, writing. Nowadays I live surrounded by vineyards in a little valley in Northern California, where it is possible to see, when one focuses one's vision correctly, that the surrounding mountains still seethe with magic. When I'm not writing I work with teenagers on some days and rescued horses on others, keeping me in touch with what a mysterious and challenging world we inhabit together.