about me

Children start reading for a host of reasons, just as writers enter their craft in various ways. I learned to read in order to understand what my peers were saying about me, since I could not speak English when I entered school.

Mom had taken me on a vacation from which we never returned. She had the courage to escape from turmoil-torn East Germany with a five year old child so I could find opportunities that were unavailable to me behind the Iron Curtain. I tagged along and learned a little English on the road of life.

A recurring insomnia, that awakened me at midnight and could only be quenched by the quill, fired my interest in writing at the age of sixteen. My first piece, "The Abyss," taught me about success and rejection. It won a competitive poetry award and publication in a literary arts magazine – after having been turned down by the same publication.

My writing took an upturn following a near-death experience in 2004. I sailed alone in an ocean regatta to Mexico when the other skippers had all taken crews. However, the sea gods were angry at someone. They sent a series of powerful storms that smashed into the fleet and only allowed half the yachts to make landfall in Veracruz. After returning from the tropics and wringing myself out, I wrote the story of my solitary high seas adventure for "Telltales," a regional sailing magazine.

The reception that "Wuffo Veracruz?" received inspired me to pick up the threads of my writing. Short stories and more magazine articles followed. In 2007, I completed my first novel, "Gift of Power."

favourite books

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