About the author

I was born in Fargo, North Dakota, and grew up during the Baby Boom era. My father was a respectable lawyer and banker, but my family was eccentric. My father raced Triumph Spitfires, played the bagpipes, and consumed books like a college professor. My mother had conservative views but liberated habits: she spoke her mind, neglected the housework, and slept until noon. My parents held raucous pool parties. Our Irish Wolfhound snagged roasts off the table, escaped the house, and ran amok in the neighborhood. My brothers and I spent much of our childhood outdoors and unsupervised. I think my family was a terror to our neighbors.

At St. Olaf College, I studied philosophy and played nine seasons of rugby. My senior year, I started my first novel. I spent the next ten years writing fiction and working odd jobs — being a room-service waiter and bartender at a French hotel and spending three summers traveling around the country as a carnie. During that time, I also boxed on a Minneapolis Golden Gloves team.

In my early 30s, I gave up fiction writing to pursue a full-time career in marketing communications. After a 14-year break, I started writing again in 2001. In 2007, I published The Islander: A Romance of the Future; in 2008, Summer Solstice: Poems at the Halfway Point in Life; in 2015, Phoebe and Zoe; in 2019, The Islander: The Battle for the Future; and in 2021, a play, The Misfit Hero.

I've lived in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, for the last 42 years. In my spare time, I read history, biographies, and science fiction; study languages; bike around the Twin Cities; and follow the Minnesota Timberwolves. On summer nights, you’ll often find me on my deck with a martini and the music turned up loud.