About Me

About Me

Who am I and why should you even care? More to the point, why should you even consider buying You Might Be Getting OLD If. . . ? Both are fair questions. Let me answer the first one first.

To say my life has been varied, fun and FULL is gross understatement. The first ten years of my adult life were spent in the good old United States Marine Corps. One of the many "adventures" I had in the USMC was a 14-month stint in combat during the Vietnam War. As, of all things, a "door gunner" in a helicopter! (Yes, youth is a fearless and reckless time in our lives.) But that's another story for another time.

I figured if I could handle all that the Marine Corps threw at me during that first decade of my adulthood, I could pretty much handle anything that came into my life after that. For the most part, that's pretty much how it's turned out, too.

I was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1970 and enrolled at the university near my hometown in Illinois, Illinois State Unversity, where I majored in English and minored in journalism. I graduated at the ripe old age of thirty! (Yes, I was older than many of the faculty!)

Once I was finally back out in the "real world," I was a newspaper reporter, owned my own advertising and public relations business and finally ended up with a "real" job at State Farm Insurance Companies, at the company's corporate headquarters in Bloomington, IL. I stayed with them for another decade, as a magazine writer and managing editor of a number of national and international publications.

I "finished" my career by spending another sixteen years with the insurance and investment affiliates of the Illinois Farm Bureau, where I was in management positions involving magazine writing, editing and publication, public relations, sales promotion and consumer research.

All through my career at both State Farm and the Illinois Farm Bureau, I also taught undergraduate communication, writing and magazine publishing courses at my alma mater, ISU.

Upon retirement—at the ripe old age of 55!—I decided to move to the part of the country I have referred to as "God's Country" ever since I first stepped foot in the state, Georgia. More specifically, Metro Atlanta, GA.

That's a brief look at who I am, then. Why should you care? Oh, I don't know, maybe because I'm a FUN guy. A nice guy. Somebody you would like to meet and get to know. (I hope so!) Maybe even someone you would like to have a beer with (if I still drank, which I don't, because when I did, I celebrated both my "victories" and "defeats" way too often!).

Now, to the second question: Why should you even consider buying You Might Be Getting OLD If . . . ? Well, I could go on and on about the relative literary merits of my book but you wouldn't believe me anyway. Plus you shouldn't because it's not true. My book has no "literary merit"! It is simply FUNNY. And, if you're, say, fifty-five or older, you'll find it FUNNY too, and will oftentimes find it hitting way too close to home!

There are few genuine promises in this old world, but I can promise you this: If you don't get as much fun out of reading my book as I had in writing it, email me within the first thirty days of purchase and I will refund 100 percent of your purchase price. How much more fair could I be?!

Peace and love to you, my brothers and sisters!