Growing up with my sister, Mary Grace, in rural North Florida was a pure delight. We played among palm trees, pine trees with their pinecones as ready-made toys, and oak hammocks with long fingers of moss hanging from the tree branches. The woods were teeming with many animals and critters: bears, wild pigs, raccoons, red fox, deer, squirrels, frogs, dragonflies, and even alligators in the nearby swamplands. It made for a rich combination for playing great games of imagination.

A rock road running through Palm Valley led to the Atlantic Ocean beach, a mere few miles from my rustic home. There were no sidewalks, and the rest of the roads were sandy dirt. The going was slow on this type of road, and we would often ride in the back of Daddy's truck. Sometimes our friends, my sister, and I would stand with our arms resting on the roof of the truck cab singing songs.

My family lived by the drawbridge spanning the Intracoastal Waterway, commonly called the Canal by the folks in the Valley. At three, I was already fishing with a cane pole off of Papa George's dock, which had a submerged shrimp cage full of fish-luring bait tied to it. We would throw cast nets for "eating shrimp" that would collect around the "mud-bombs" we had thrown near the shore. The "bombs" were made of natural clay found on the muddy banks of the Canal mixed with sardines and dry dog food. We would dry the smelly "cannonballs" in the sun, and then lob them into the dark, tannin-colored water.

Around age 12, I began to learn to play guitar with my neighbor Ernie. As we got older, we wrote songs together and even made several records. We had the good fortune to travel and sing on shows with a number of popular artists: Skeeter Davis, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Kitty Wells, Bobby Bare, Roy Orbison, and the like.

Beginning my working life, I studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florida. After working in the field for years, I knew that I wanted something more. I always loved art, graphic design, and photography, so that's where I headed. After enjoying a time of being a freelance photographer, I became photo-processing manager at a large multimedia company. That experience, combined with years in drafting, led into professional darkroom design. Finding the niche that I loved, I had a sub-contracting company that designed and installed darkrooms in schools, military bases, museums, hospital medical media centers, and newspaper facilities.

My hobbies are traveling, Bonsai gardening, playing guitar, cooking healthful meals, reading graphic novels, and taking care of my three kitties, Captain, Prince, and Sugar Ray.

In the background of all of this activity lurked the desire to write and illustrate children's books. I worked on this personal project off and on over the years, just to satisfy my artistic urge, not knowing whether my stories would ever see the light of day. I now have the time to follow my heart and manifest my dream to entertain children. I hope you enjoy the result.