I started painting houses for my father at the age of ten years old. He paid me $2.00 per hour. In 1972 at age fourteen my father gave me a pay raise, from then on I worked part time in the winter and full time in the summer and I was first introduced to books around the same time by my reading teacher who asked me to write a paper on an author. My selection was Edgar Allen Poe. I found him to be an inspiration. His stories really came to life and opened my eyes. My next taste of literature was a book called "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkin. This set my mind in motion to write. In the mid “80s” when I really started to write. I was twenty-eight years old, still painting but I wanted to write as well. So I set out to write poems. I modeled my style after Edgar Allen Poe by trying to keep it short and to the point. I didn't try to write "macabre" but what I felt. I made my own style. I wanted to write for my own amusement. I worked as foreman for my father for eight years till the crash of 1987 and suddenly found myself out of work. Two years later I started my own painting company. I continued to write while painting houses. In 2008 went to school at Long Ridge Writer Group. This is how I got to where I am today.