I was born and have lived my entire life in New York’s Hudson Valley. Leaving a few times, but always finding my way back.I started writing at a very young age–poetry and short stories. Early on, I...view moreI was born and have lived my entire life in New York’s Hudson Valley. Leaving a few times, but always finding my way back.I started writing at a very young age–poetry and short stories. Early on, I was influenced by Steinbeck and Hemingway. Finding myself alone once in William Faulkner’s Pirates Alley, New Orleans study, sitting under a photo of Hemingway, communing with the ghosts of that room, in a cathartic moment something changed, and I began to take my work as a writer seriously.I write stories that more often than not are loosely or not so loosely based on people and places I’ve known.Today, I find myself a landlocked buccaneer, trying to cope with 20th century mediocrity.The Berry Pickers is my fourth novel, preceded by The Third Step, The Truth is in the Water and The Three Lives of Richie O’Malley. Richey O’Malley won a few awards including 2021 BEST THRILLER BOOK AWARD, 5-star reviews from Readers Favorite, and a Reader's Choice Award. The first book, The Third Step is a pretty good story but a mechanical mess. I hope to one day revise it.view less