Why you might ask the emphasis on authentic? The answer is simple. I am a gay male who came of age while the world around me had gay people stuffed so deep in the closet it took years for many to find a way out. Some never did. I know what it means to have been gay during the 80s and the 90s. Many of my stories have a historical background. I want new generations to understand what living in the closet was like in the not too-distant past.

     Air Force Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was on the cover of Time magazine, September 8, 1975. He was battling the military to continue serving his country while being gay. He lost his battle and was given a less than honorable discharge. His famous words are on his gravestone. “They gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” He served bravely in the Viet Nam War.

     One of my gifts in life is my vivid and at times overactive imagination. Much of my time in grade school was spent dreaming of far-off worlds while staring out the window. I’ll never forget the morning in sixth-grade while performing duties as a school crossing guard. I was assigned a street corner well within view of my second-floor classroom at Whitmore Bolles Elementary School in Dearborn, Michigan. On this particular morning, while waiting for the jump-up-and-down signal of the all-clear, I felt compelled to dance. Not any popular dance of the time, but a dance of classical ballet. 

     My teacher, Miss Martel, saw me. She was the middle-aged teacher who nicknamed me the ‘Sissy Hippie.’ She was the adult bully in my life doing her best to demonstrate for all the other boys in the classroom the way not to be. She directed the class to leave their seats for a front-row view of my impromptu performance. That was the first and last time I ever attempted classical ballet. There were many other facets of my life that got packed away inside the closet.  By the time I reached young adulthood, I pretty much had all of my undesirable ‘Sissy Hippy’ characteristics hidden away; not only from the world, but from myself as well.

     At the end of my confinement as the ‘Sissy Hippie’ in my sixth grade class, fate granted my wish to all my dreams.

     My father was assigned as a professor from Eastern Michigan University to teach at a teachers college in Somalia during a time when Somalia was free from political strife, famine and civil war. Escaping the suburbs of Detroit and moving to Somalia was a period of pure magic to feed my starving imagination for far-off worlds. I became fascinated with language and culture. 

     I graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in anthropology. I then went on to serve for 13 years as an officer in the Air Force where having the ability to think outside of the box served me well. By this point in  my life I was extremely adept with living in the closet and having a professional career. Living without a personal life was barely noticed since the military mission was forefront of my existence. I moved every two years with overseas assignments. Two years was just long enough for the people around me to begin to wonder. “Why isn’t that guy dating a pretty girl?” Then it would be off to the next assignment in another corner of the world to meet and work with new people. With a clean slate.

     After coming to the conclusion that living with ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was too stifling if I was ever to become a healthy adult, I left the military and joined the ranks of public school teachers in Chicago. I taught Spanish bilingual education for the next 18 years of my life. I hated my experience in public school. I did all I could to give my Mexican American students a better classroom memory to fall back on.

     Not only do I have a collection of historical novels, I have present-day stories as well. It’s true, there are cities in this country where same-sex couples are going to the high school prom. There are same sex couples living in base housing on our military bases around the world. But I also realize there are pockets of small towns and rural communities where being gay for teens is still a difficult cross to bear. I wrote about this world in my book, ‘The Killer From Marble Falls High.’ It’s one of my Texas Hill Country mystery novels. The gay teens in that story have their trials and tribulations due to their sexuality. Some of them living in fear of coming out of the closet, much the same way generations did before them. Living in the closet is not a thing of the past!

     If reading science fiction is your preferred genre, I have those as well in my inventory. I have also written novels for children about boys who are beginning to realize they are different from the other boys around them.

     And so I wish to share this gift of mine with the world. Being  gay and having an understanding of the military culture along with my firsthand experience living for many years outside the borders of my own country have served me well to write authentic stories. Stories with accurate geographical settings and relatable characters.