Background

I grew up in a Navy family which means we moved around a bit until I was in fifth grade when we settle in Northern Virginia. I have many very fond memories of those early years, the best from the 2 1/2 years we spent in Japan. I have many wonderful memories and stories from that time.

I was in 5th grade when we settled in Northern Virginia and we stayed in the general area until I graduated from high school. For a variety of reasons, I developed a bad attitude in high school and, as far as I can remember, did not do a lick of work the whole time. This left me with very marginal grades and no prospects for college.

Instead I went to work for the CIA and hated it so much that I saved my money and went back to a community college to redeem myself, which I did. Upon leaving the community college I easily got into a four year school (James Madison University) where I graduated with honors and was awarded outstanding senior in mathematics. Looks like I had turned things around. Not so fast. I went home after graduation and had not even thought about applying for any jobs. I landed up mowing lawns for spending money. A late offer came in the mail from University of Florida which included a stipend if I agreed to teach a couple classes. It was an offer I couldn't refuse.

I spent five trimesters in Gainesville before completing my MS in Mathematics with a concentration in Abstract Algebra. I returned home again with no job prospects. Fortunately, I eventually figured out what getting a job was all about, got a job that included training and educational benefits. I went back to school and completed an MBA and was never unemployed again. Sometimes it takes me a while to catch on, but, when I do, I really catch on.

A big chunk of time from the mid 1970's to the early 1990's was dedicated to the usual things: having a family, buying a house and pursuing my career. At one point we moved to Texas only to move back again a couple of years later. I learned two important lessons from that experience. First, you never know how much you like where you are living until you try living somewhere else. And, don't buy a house somewhere unless you are pretty sure you want to stay there. During this time, my career consisted of a wide variety of jobs using information technology from programmer, to product analyst, toe database designer.

When we returned from Texas I enrolled in a doctor program (part time while I was working full time) and completed my PhD in 1992. A year or two later, I left the world of software development and became an academic. That lasted for the next 27 years when I retired and took up writing full time as an encore career.