I was born in Louisiana, and have not budged from the south since. (By "budge" I mean Move. I've visited the cold frozen North plenty of times.) I have lived in LA,FL,GA and MS. That is not to say I wouldn't budge from the south--it's just that it hasn't happened yet. But I do have this thing against cold weather, so if I do move anywhere, it's going to be someplace that doesn't get too cold.

Oh, who am I kidding? I love the South. I love the people, I love the atmosphere, I love the relaxed nature of living, and I'd rather be hot than cold any day. Yeah, I'll most likely live here the rest of my life. I think it would take a helluva lot to budge me from here now.

I went to college at Georgia Tech, where I eventually graduated with a degree in Applied Mathematics. With my stellar GPA (yeah right), I managed to land a job as a Data Analyst working for Computer Sciences Corporation at Stennis Space Center, working on the NDBC weather buoy project. It was an interesting job in many ways, and I learned a great deal about the weather, but the pay was, frankly, dreadful, and when the opportunity to move into the gaming industry opened up I decided to give it a try.

For the next five and a half years I used my math degree to count to 21 really fast. I went from being just a dealer, to being a Pit Boss, with a lot of responsibility and a very nice salary to go with it.

But it wasn't for me, and while I liked the people I worked with and for, I never cared for the industry. I wanted to do more. I wanted to feel like I was a part of something useful, I wanted to be able to take pride in my career and what I was doing with my life. So, in the fall of 1999, after many months of consideration and thought, I quit the casino industry and became a Deputy Sheriff, working Criminal Patrol.

Yeah, with a gun and a badge and everything. I went back to pay that was, frankly, dreadful, but one thing I learned while working in the gambling industry is that money is not everything, and if you're not happy with what you do and who you are, all the money in the world won't help you. In the early part of 2002 I was approached and subtly recruited to become a detective, and it was the best move I think I've ever made. I'm steadily carving a specialized niche for myself and am currently working on becoming certified as a computer forensic examiner.

I'm also a writer. I finished my first novel, A Gathering Power, in 1997, and submitted it to a publisher. Three-plus years later after a variety of correspondence and them losing it and me sending another copy and me getting my hopes up when I was told it had been passed on to the head of the publishing company with a positive recommendation... it finally got rejected. One of these days I'll do a rewrite on it and send it out again. It doesn't suck, but it could use some tweaking.

In the summer of 1998 I attended the Clarion West Writer's Workshop. Clarion was intensely valuable for me, and certainly improved my writing. In the years since Clarion I've changed my outlook somewhat on whether I want to BE a Writer--I became frustrated with the business end of it and it became rather Not Fun. However, recently I'm feeling the urge to get back into it--not necessarily to be on the road to being a Pro, but at least to have some fun at it. I maintained my journal during Clarion, so if you want to get a bit of an insight into the Clarion experience, be sure to check that out. At one point I was saying that I was getting pictures scanned and put up, but it's been over four years now and no more pics have been put up, so this is it: page1, page2, page3.

I was married for about 5 1/2 years and then got divorced. While my ex and I did not have an acrimonious parting, the whole thing still soured me on the concept of marriage, and as a result I spent many years with no desire to ever get married again.

But then several years later I had to testify in a trial, and I met this prosecutor, who later asked me out, and darn it if we didn't totally hit it off, and a few months later, by gum, I was married again. And, to top it all off, as of this posting (Feb '03) I'm happily pregnant and due in Oct '03.

Other various details: I totally love being a cop, and love being a detective even more, I have five stepkids, two step grandkids, and one "full" kid on the way, I have a black belt in Hapkido, my navel is pierced, I own a nice little house in Slidell, LA, though now I am living in a much nicer house in Mandeville, LA, which I do hope to actually buy very soon, and I have a fabulous German Shepherd named Zeus. For more details than that, your best bet is to peruse my journal.