Yeah, I'm a writer, too. And an illustrator. And a playwright. And a couple of other things. My first non-fiction work was published in 1997, while my first novel, Fishing for Piranha, was published in 2000--both projects encountering enthusiastic acclaim and encouraging sales, with notices in the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, and Borders Monthly arts & entertainment brick & brack & knick & knack. Last Fortress Press published both books, and then the imprint folded in 2002. Bastards.
My third book found me mired in an international religious controversy in 2003, but the effort really got me noticed on an international level. SCORE! Dan Vergano mentioned my work and book in USA Today, my investigative powers were also noted in Biblical Archaeology Review, Sciences et Avenir/Science and Learning (published in eleven--count 'em!--ELEVEN nations), Brazil's mega-daily Folha, and a clutch of other mags, rags, and journals. Major Jonathan Pagis of the Israel Police Antiquities "Fraud Squad" said that my book was:
"...an outstanding journalistic example of the analysis of open sources."
Major Pagis is a very nice guy, so his words were beaucoup appreciated. Heck, I was even interviewed for 60 Minutes London by exec-producer Solly Granatstein. All good fun. But now I sort of hate that book I wrote because writing it nearly (yet not quite!) gave me a nervous breakdown and SOME people in this world generally suck massively.
On to the recent past!
My latest book, Waiting for the Rapture: Scenes from a Magical Life, was one of the first two books to ever win an iUniverse "Publisher's Choice Award" and, because of this merit, was selected for high-profile "new release" placement in Barnes & Noble retail. Whoopty-Galldang-Do! I was WAY leery about going the iUniverse route, but I dreaded doing the whole agent-dance all over again at the time, and it didn't turn out to be so bad at all--the book got great reviews ("...reminiscent of Sedaris...") and has been "snapped-up" by a NIZE publishing house. It will be pubbed under a different title (and nom de plume!) that I'm not even remotely about to reveal to you! This will happen sometime in 2008, or more probably 2009. Maybe I'll mention it then.
Until then, I bask. I dwell in shadow. I have many irons in numerous "fires." It's all good.
Background? HA! I have lived and studied in Europe. I have floated like LEOpatra down the Nile and haunted ancient Egyptian ruins. I have surfed the waves of the muddy Atlantic in northern Florida. I have dodged bullets whilst living in New York City as a 19 year-old lad who worked in Roman Catholic ministry with an eye toward the priesthood. Wow! Was THAT ever a big frigging mistake (the priesthood aspirations...not NYC). I have also done etc., etc., etc.
I am considered to be a pleasant, intelligent, opinionated-yet-graciously-well-mannered person. I am also said to be a very good lay and a scintillating raconteur. "Charismatic" is the word most people use to describe me, I would have to aver.
Now I live in California and plan not to leave.
My faults? I suck at gift-wrapping "prettily." I can't arrange flowers to save my life (perhaps because I hate flowers). I have been known to criticize others unduly.
Whom do I admire?
ALIVE: Kenny-B, Roger Federer, Sinead O'Connor, Cintra Wilson. (SAMPLING ONLY)
DEAD-AS-HAIR: Dostoyevsky, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Mother Teresa. (SAMPLING ONLY)
What do I look like these days? What sort of aura emanates from my person? Why, see for yourself. This is, after all, a shrine of utter self-adoration...and, according to ME, I am so worth it.
(sigh).
