The Silver Lining -- Heartbreak Leads to Storytelling

The Silver Lining

My writing history began with a silver lining in a very large, dark cloud. I was a young child living with my parents and brothers and sister in Kansas City, Missouri. I was a sickly little guy. Even in second grade I was hardly bigger that a #2 lead pencil.

I suffered severely with asthma, almost to the point of death. The summers with their heat, humidity, and heavy pollen counts kept me housebound, unable to run outside with my siblings and neighbor kids. Winter was no better. The wet, cold weather was the wedge that kept me confined to the house. There was no escape—summer or winter.

Finally, my life was forever changed when two nuns showed up at my front door to offer a solution, and quite possibly save my life. This solution would take me several states away from my family to live in the arid pollen-free state of Arizona in an orphanage.  

Bye, Mama

I've written a short piece that will give you a snapshot of the heart breaking experience. You can read "Bye, Mama" here.

There was a silver lining. With the help from my family, I buried myself if the Sunday comics and learned to read. With an occasional comic book—Dick Tracy and Pruneface; Li’l Abner with Daisy Mae and Mammy and Pappy Yokum: Steve Canyon, Terry and the Pirates, and dozens more, I immersed myself into each “square.” It didn’t make any difference what I was reading, I allowed myself to become a part of the story—a cowboy, a pilot, a detective, or even a hillbilly.

Unbeknownst to me or my parents, I was outgrowing my age group in reading, and was adding to that the ability to be creative. It was fun to make up stories, even when I had exhausted the supply of comics and was stuck inside—thanks to the asthma.

Many years later, and after we moved to Arizona for my health, did I find that those early years that had been so dreadful turned out to be a shining light on my police career, and later, on my writing career.

After a stint in the USMC, I joined the Tucson Police Department and married Gwen Hamilton, a teacher from Texas. It was at the TPD where federal grants allowed me to go to college while working full-time. It was then my writing began to jell. Reading and writing fit like a hand in a glove for my studies at the University of Arizona where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science, Magna Cum Laude, in Public Administration. 

At the same time, I climbed the ranks to Sgt, Lieutenant, Captain, and Deputy Chief. Corresponding to those assignments, I was given a rare opportunity to carryout major projects, conduct research, develop deployment plans and techniques, conduct crime analysis, and develop overall changes in police operations. Mixed in to those times, I graduated from the FBI National Academy, FBI Executive Development Program, and the Senior Management Institute for Police at Harvard University.

With those efforts behind me, I became Chief of the Lubbock Police Department, carrying out many of those same types of opportunities. After retiring from the LPD, I started the Lubbock Public Schools Police Department. Once again, I pursued those same characteristics of knowledge, skills, and abilities to start an agency from scratch.


I finally “pulled the pin,” and retired from policing after

almost 50 years. It was time to re-channel my efforts to creative writing. My first novel, Color of the Prism, immediately was optioned to Tarantino Productions. That film project lasted several years, but the $35,000,000.00 budget never came together, so the project was shelved.

Nevertheless, the fiction bug had been born and five more novels followed—The Third Dawn, a novel on the life of Christ as seen by his guardian angel; Sweet Emily, a serial murder case operating in the Dallas and Tulsa areas; Voices in the Fog, the first of the Christie Cole trilogy; the multiple award winning Arrows of Allah was the second in the trilogy; and, finally, The Spy Among Us, which closes out the trilogy.

Then to add a little spice to the stew, I have written or co-written several screenplays, and have re-focused some of my energy to short stories, where I have already achieved an award for the soon to be published, The Last Outpost.
But for the moment, it’s time to catch my breath. Stay tuned. There is more to come. 

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Come Back Yesterday

Kayla waits for years to have the full attention of her boyfriend, Benigno. Finally, when Kayla is ready to give up hope, he confesses what has been keeping him so busy, the news of an amazing discovery...one that will change the course of history forever. A discovery that will change the lives of every human on Earth in ways that no one could fully anticipate.

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