A LITERARY JOURNEY
In 1977 at age 25, I responded to a personal "call of the wild," leaving behind the east coast and making a trek to Mt. McKinley (now Denali) National Park in far-off Alaska. There, surrounded by wilderness, I found fun and lucrative seasonal work that lasted for the next 10 years.
During the off-season, my journey as an editor and author began with a small travel-guide publishing company, Moon Publications. I started out as a typesetter when typesetting machines were as big as a 1959 Cadillac -- fins and all. I worked my way up to assistant editor, then editor, managing editor, executive editor, and editor at large when the "call of the quill" summoned me and I began writing travel guidebooks. It started with the Alaska-Yukon series and continued with the Nevada series, which ultimately led to the Las Vegas series.
In Las Vegas, I found my niche as the senior editor at Huntington Press, a specialty publisher of books about Sin City and gambling, including the mob, the casinos, and the Vegas lifestyle. In my free time, I often found myself on busman's holidays, owning and operating a publishing-services business; I still do, as you can see from the site.
Moving on from Las Vegas, I spent three years living in Ecuador on a different kind of journey -- in a completely different culture; that led to the Expats in Ecuador series.
In the past four-plus decades, I've edited an estimated 800 books (roughly 20 a year), including fiction in many genres and non-fiction on many subjects, along with countless essays, book reviews, feature articles, news stories, website pages, plays and screenplays, press releases, and marketing pieces of all kinds. I've also written five non-fiction books (Nevada Handbook, Compass Las Vegas, Whale Hunt in the Desert, Expats in Ecuador, and Vegas Golden Knights) and three unpublished novels (The Gentleman Caller, Las Vegas 2040, and Bob).
A journey often ends up "literally" where you started -- older and usually wiser. Today, I find myself heeding the call of the wild in the mountains of central Arizona where my backyard is a wildlife corridor for deer, javelina, coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions. And the call of the quill continues to engage me as I nurture new authors and support seasoned ones.
Welcome to your best work!
