A Bit About Me...
I live in rural Jersey County, Illinois with my wife, Mary. I have two daughters, Sara and Jamie; a stepdaughter, Lauren; two grandsons, Matthew, 7, and Cole, only a couple months old.
I was born in 1953 on a farm in Southern Missouri, about 5 miles Southeast of the town of Doniphan.
I've always loved hunting and fishing, and I was introduced to both before I was old enough to attend school. I remember tagging along behind my dad and his big English Pointer, hunting for quail near the brushy fencerows on the farm. And I still recall the bite of the November air, the mad rush of wings, the roar of his Stevens, the sweet smell of gunpowder and Queenie happily fetching another bird to my dad's hand.
Forty-five years later, there's still no place on earth I'd rather be than on a lake or stream or in the timber. I've owned and hunted nearly every type of dog, but I've become most fond of the tree-dogs. When the woods were bigger and my girth was smaller, I loved to follow after my Redbone Coon Hounds. Today I hunt with Curs and enjoy them too.
I'm also an "aspiring writer". We all aspire to something, and my goals are to get my first book published, and to have a couple great hunting dogs that really shine in the woods. On occasion, I've managed to combine my two loves and have written about dogs or dogs and people.
Some of my writings have appeared in Full Cry and River Hills Traveler, and I'm including a few of those on this web page so that more people can read and, hopefully, enjoy them.
I'm currently writing a novel called "Southern Ripley County". I hope the writing is good enough and the story interesting enough to convince an editor to buy it.
Time will tell.
