Look and Listen

Biography

I began my professional career as a public school teacher in Utah. Fresh out of college and full of energy, it was a perfect time to stretch myself and attempt to "make a difference" in the lives of those I taught, and working with Native Americans seemed to be the perfect place to do just that. After a year in public education I relocated to the Navajo Reservation in the American southwest.

I spent sixteen years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which included several years as principal of an elementary school at a remote location called "Tsaya" on some maps and "Lake Valley" on others. It was here that I was shown a natural alcove within the sheer walls of a sandstone cliff where a hidden spring exists, and it was that beautiful, natural spring that set my novel, Whistler's Gold, in motion.

The short of my biography is that I went on to earn an MA degree at Arizona State University and a PhD from the University of New Mexico. In addition to my work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which included principalships, superintendencies, and a stint as the interim president of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, I have worked for the Office of Surface Mining (Kansas City and Tulsa), and at the Bureau of Land Management's National Training Center in Phoenix, Arizona, from which I retired in 2004.

In addition to doing a limited amount of consultant work, most of my retirement energies are focused on watching my grandchildren (and great-grandchildren) grow, and, oh yes, writing to fulfill a personal dream.

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from within, and it is from that place inside myself that I meld personal experiences with real places to create stories that never were - but could have been.