About Me Page

I started off in my twenties in poetry, with an MA in English from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and

quickly found out that poetry was a quick road to starvation. I cobbled together a living by adjunct teaching in

Boulder and then the University of Alaska, Anchorage (where I had moved) and journalism. I lived for a year

in Tokyo, teaching English.

That kind of slippery life continued through my thirties as I moved back to Woodstock, New York, where I had

grown up, and tried to hold my first marriage together, without much luck. In my early forties, I got into books.

I began editing, co-writing, book doctoring, and proposal writing. My work is multifaceted, but it boils down to

helping create books. I work closely with authors as both an editor and collaborator. I develop books on my

own, which tend to end up under my Peekamoose imprint, although they are published by the trade houses.

A number of agents feed me work, and I occasionally take work from editors.

I am now in my early fifties. I always have multiple proposals and manuscripts in the works. I love hatching

ideas. I have tried to help make books that will last. I am drawn to unique stories and strong intellectual

content. I like to think that some of the books I have helped bring into being have made a difference in

people’s lives.

I have a eleven-year-old daughter from a second marriage and son who is twenty-three from my first.  I’m still in

Woodstock. My house is up in the mountains, right on the edge of the Catskill Forest Preserve. I have a dog,

a mortgage, a killer stove (I love to cook), a few fly rods, a battered pair of hiking books, an old Gibson guitar

(too often neglected), and friends. Many of them are authors with whom I’ve worked.