My world in four parts?

     Physically I suppose that works.

     Part one was Cleveland, well to be technically correct Cleveland Heights, where I was born and grew up, the oldest of five children. Normal life, normal sibling rivalries, just—totally normal.

     A side step from there to college, where I majored in scene design, and in the process took a play writing course. That was the first time I found out that I could write something other than research papers and was actually fairly good at writing fiction. It took years though before I tried again.

     Then, back to Cleveland where I interned at a local theater and discovered my true ‘calling’ as a costumer.

     Part two, New York City. Doesn’t ever aspiring theater person end up there at some point in their life? Well maybe not every one but—So, anyway, I discovered the joys of restaurant work. ‘Joys’ said with a definite note of sarcasm. I did manage to find one job in my field, working wardrobe at an Off Broadway theater. I left the city three years later after a short and very disastrous affair when the fight or flight syndrome kicked in and I chose flight.

     Part three, I landed in Chicago via Vista, where I worked at a home for character disordered boys for three years. That was a totally amazing experience, one I’ll never regret.

     Part four. I decided it was time to leave Chicago and move on, so I headed to Denver where I’ve been ever since. I found the perfect job, as the designer for a costume shop in the heart of the city. I met someone, and true to form it turned out to be a disaster. The one saving grace was our son. After the inevitable breakup I became a single parent, and didn’t do too badly at it if I do say so myself, despite a few flubs along the way. He turned into a quite wonderful young man and may, eventually, settle down with his present girlfriend.

     It was only very recently that I considered trying my hand at writing again. Now I’m addicted. I love the creation process, pulling from past experiences and the people I’ve known write primarily male/male ‘romances’. Some are theater oriented, many, in fact most of them involve some sort of mystery or suspense element, and they seem to break about 60/40 between reality oriented and the supernatural.

    Finally, I took the very frightening step of submitting one of them to a publisher and was amazed and elated when Silver Publishing accepted Colin’s story, ‘Everyone’s Man’.

   And that, for the moment at least, is my world.