I was born in Detroit and raised in its suburbs. I live in Boston now, and root for the Red Sox, although the Tigers will always have a claim on my affections.
I was drawn to science and technology as a boy, but good experiences with English and history in high school turned me towards the humanities. I enjoyed my undergraduate work in American History and Literature, and I went on to get a PhD., intending to teach college English and write poetry.
The difficulty of doing that was just becoming apparent when the phone rang. It was Gulf Oil, offering an editing job. So I got out of English and into oil, and thence into information technology and telecommunications, my professional home for some years, primarily at Strategy Analytics (now Tech Insights), a market information and consulting firm. I am grateful that my work allowed me to travel to places as diverse as Taiwan and Kansas.
Place has played a significant role in my writing. Interesting stories can come from looking hard enough at a place or a thing from enough different angles. I am interested in using multiple disciplines – the natural sciences, popular culture, economics, history – to understand the richness of Moose Factory, Ontario, or the resonance of a simple word like “mister.”