I grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska, seeped in the culture of the early 1960s. I still remember sneaking into my mother’s closet to use her typewriter, a VTG 1937 Royal Portable Manual with keys rimmed in silver metal. That typewriter allowed me to create pages that looked like they came straight from the books housed in the Carnegie Library in my hometown.

I watched Westerns, reenacted battles from WWII, built forts in lilac bushes and roamed the neighborhoods until the street lights came on, oblivious to the real world problems of Civil Rights, inequality, social injustice, environmental degradation and shifting power structures of American society.

As a teenager, I found a home in music and theater. I also found joy in creating artwork of all kinds. In early adulthood, I started creating electronic music, 16mm films and stage plays. I found inspiration in the music of Frank Zappa, Aaron Copeland, Led Zeppelin and Bill Monroe.

All of these activities added to my interest in exploring different ways of telling stories. For 17 years I produced, wrote and hosted a 30-minute storytelling program on public radio stations on the East Coast.

Upon retiring from a career as a special needs school bus driver (my day job), I have focused on a more traditional approach to storytelling through creative writing, enrolling in the Master’s English Program at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Naturally I left out most of the good parts of my personal story, including my job as a dad to four amazing children. Throughout my life, the urge to create, disrupt, explore, entertain and learn have remained strong.