My eclectic career has included commercial flowers, anthropology, archaeology, cinematography, foreign and sports car parts and repair, and youth camping, sports, and recreation programming. I was born and raised on the flat earth of central Kansas where Mad Dog & Englishman, Prairie Gothic, and Plains Crazy take place. I graduated from Wichita State University and did another three years of post graduate work at the University of Arizona. My home is in Tucson, where I live with my wife, Barbara, three computers, four thousand or so books, and a small herd of German Shepherds.

By the way, that's Elmer, Kansas up there, or all that's left of it. You might still find it on maps, though it basically ceased to exist even before when I grew up, one mile south and half a mile west of this spot. That's the type of elevator Kansas had before the concrete skyscrapers moved in and began to dominate the landscape. There was another at Darlow, Kansas, half a mile south of our farm. It's gone now, not Darlow, the elevator. Surprised me, they even came in and took away the railroad tracks that led there.
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