About the Author
My last gainful employment was as a freelance property manager on the North End of Providence. I'd start saying all the things I used to do or have done, but then there wouldn't be room for anything else on this page. I am now permanently legally blind. Don't ask me how I do the things I still do, because I don't always know that answer, beyond sheer stubbornness and will. That blind thing is out of the way now. I deal with it on my "Blindsided" blog. It won't be mentioned again here, no matter what happens in my stories with people at war getting pierced in the eye with insectoid stingers, shot in the eye, or aliens whose eyes grow on tentacles have the tentacles pulled out. Those things were all written before I went blind anyway.
I do occasional web development and some desktop publishing. If you have a job you need done, contact me. I'm fairly cheap.
I was born at Lying-In hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, but that was so many years and identities ago that it doesn't seem to matter. After having had residences in 10% of Rhode Island's cities and towns and in New Bedford, Massachusetts, I settled in Providence's North End in 1995. I have lived like a garret-residing recluse writer as much as possible and have accumulated way too much junk (and too many cats) since.
This is me,
The most common themes in my writing are about characters' identity and their adjustment or maladjustment to the worlds they live in. How readily can they accept change? How hard will someone hold on to his own sense of self when the imperfect society around him changes, or, worse, tells him he is wrong? After all, lemmings have their societies too, and I would not be joining them either.
Some of the questions I have addressed:
How do the weak survive among stronger peers and
unforeseen crisis?
"The Thirteenth Day on Kurko"
How far can a man be pushed before something just
snaps?
"Love Refinished"
How does our self concept differ from other peoples'
thoughts and memories of us?
"A Pediatrician in Wartime"
Do we really know what awaits us when we rise to meet
our destiny?
"Advance Gratitude"
How do we cope when working with the narrow minded
cliques?
"Welcome to the Konvokashun"
How do we deal with crippling loss?
"Smokestacks"
Who decides what's right and wrong, and just who has
the balls to stand up to a society that knows it's wrong but just goes
along with it anyway because that's easier?
The Renegades
Where do we find the line between ethics and duty?
"The Veritable Vegetable Victory"
How much luck does it take to find our place in life?
"Pos-psi-bilities"
What happens when larger society will enforce what's
best for us as individuals with demands that we surrender some
liberties?
"Smoked"
How can a man survive the transition to a new culture
when that new culture thinks what he does for "a living" is wrong?
"Braced for the Bite"
How does one man deal when the only thing he has to love may not be
exclusively his anymore?
"The Fate of the New
Companion"
Who and what do we dedicate ourselves to?
The
Renegades
Who am I and how did I get here?
"The
Long Way"
How do we cope when distracted in achieving our lifelong goals?
"Interstellar Sting"
What happens if we refuse to change while the life we have known
(such as it is) changes around us?
The Bedross Ambush
Can the majority of us in the middle find our sense of self among the
screaming extremes?
"Nothing Compares"
Who do we listen to when so many people tell us who and what we
should be?
The
Renegades
What happens when we accept what society does and how it changes,
even when we find our position within it fully reversed?
"Hopeful
New Century"
How can we survive against overwhelming public opinion, even though
14 million Chinamen CAN be wrong?
Teletrial
Is it wrong if everyone else is doing it?
"Infidelity
Knocks"
What happens to a man of action if he too readily accepts the casual,
uninformed opinions of the inactive majority?
Uncommon Criminals
How far will a fight over changing family dynamics go?
"As the
Squirrel Gods Command"
Are our loyalties bought or earned and why do we give them?
The Renegades
Professional Bibliography
has been moved to its own separate page. Yeah, it's getting long enough to warrant that!