My Bio: 

I am a former US Marine parachutist, recon scout, and Super Squad team leader, with a bachelor's degree in creative writing.  I have taught novel writing for Butler County Community College, and I am a founder and former president of the Kansas Writers Association (a fourteen-year-old group of one hundred and fifty writers).  I have published two thriller novels; Jezebel and Dead Reckoning. My unpublished thriller A Culling of Innocents was a finalist for the Rupert Hughes Award at the 2003 Maui Writers Conference.  Two other unpublished thrillers, Jack Knight and The Storegga Effect, won first place consecutively in the KWA's 2003 and 2004 novel-writing competitions. My nonfiction book specifically targeting beginning novelists, Novel Writing Made Simple, won second place in the Oklahoma Writers Federation's 2004 competition. Brainstorm, my latest thriller manuscript, won first place in the KWA's novel-writing competition in a previous year and is by far my best work. 

As an independent editor, speaker, conference organizer and writer, I have made and kept current numerous contacts with editors and agents in the NY publishing industry as well as others around the country.  I try to stay connected with writers and the writing industry by doing speaking engagements at writers conferences as well as for writers organizations and even small groups.  I'm also conducting full-day writing seminars and workshops in the Midwest in cities like Wichita, Lincoln (Nebraska), Kansas City, Omaha, Des Moines, and St. Louis over the coming months, based on my Novel Writing Made Simple book.

Over the past fifteen years, I have edited literally hundreds of fiction and non fiction work. My editing services include the full gamut, dependent upon the individual writer's needs--from quick read-throughs to full line edits and story reviews.  As a primer especially for the beginning novelist, my Grabber 1250! is a fun way to help seasoned as well as new writers examine their stories and ensure that when they present their work to the publishing industry, it will be at its very best.