about me

Hello, Dear Friends and Fellow Writers!

So why do we write? Surely, each of us have our own reasons but whatever they are, they must also accompany a common desire we all have to tell a compelling story and to have it enthusiastically heard.

I'm interested in good stories, regardless of the genre but I do have a penchant for those stories that reveal some kind of transformation or some kind of learning that comes about when the protagonist overcomes whatever challenge is facing him or her. Sometimes this transformation is a simple awakening to new truths, other times it may be truly life changing but regardless, if the author captures something that has real drama, real emotion, I'm usually interested.

Now about my book, What we Live For: I have surely picked a very weighty title for my humble work, haven't I? I know it sounds like I'm going to attempt to give all the answers to one of life's greatest questions but in fact, I really only hint at what those answers might be. Oh, lest you wonder, this is not a religion-based book. While the topic of religion certainly does appear, it is not central to the overall story. On the other hand, the reader will probably sense something of a spiritual nature to the story and if that is so, I've done my job well. I do not equate religion with spirituality.

In his poem, Ode on Intimations of Immortality, William Blake says:

“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come…”

This poet clearly thought that the human being is bringing something into this world that has its origin in another: the human soul, the “star” that guides us in life.

In my work, I have made a literary attempt to cast light upon the journey of one human being whose life’s star leads him out of a very dark and troubled childhood towards a much brighter and hopeful future. As I said, while there are never direct answers given to the great questions about the meaning or purpose of life, it is hoped the reader will discover the hints that are revealed in the stories and thus come to see, at least through the author’s eyes, what it is that we live for.

I was born and raised in America but I have now lived approximately half my life in Japan. Aside from my twin passions of reading and writing, I enjoy skiing, gardening, music, movies, and playing the ancient board game called Go. As for work, I run a small language school and also a small artisan bakery.

Getting to know each of you through your writing is an ongoing pleasure of mine. Truly, there is nothing more fascinating than peering into the inner life of another human being. I believe reading allows us to do this in a very accessible way. So let's be readers of one another's souls and hopefully, when we're finished, become better friends and better aware of what it means to be a human.

favourite books

Don Quixote, Parzival, The Complete Works of William Shakesphere, War and Peace, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Vol. 1, Poems of William Blake, Leaves of Grass, Island of Blue the Dolphins, Lord of The Flies, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Earthsea Quartet, The Hobbit, Norton's Anthology of Short Stories, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Wisdom of Fairy Tales.

my websites