Born and raised in Norwich, Connecticut, I grew up hearing first-hand stories of WWII partisan fighters from friends of my parents. These stories, absorbed during childhood, probably inspired my interest in the politics of resistance later captured in my novel, THE MASTER PLANETS. The question “Why didn’t more victims fight back?” or, more pointedly, “What happened to the people who did fight back?” became one of the thematic building blocks of the book.

I received my BA (English) from Connecticut College, my MA (English) from Rowan University, and my Doctorate (Education) from Rutgers University. For 23 years I've taught high school English, where I've proudly distributed thousands of bathroom passes and arbitrated numerous battles over vocabulary, grammar, and rhetoric, all in the noble cause of imparting “Confrontational Language Arts” to New Jersey adolescents.

My first completed novel, AIN'T NO SIN TO ROCK AND ROLL, was optioned for film. My second, TINA'S '68 MUSTANG, is under revision. THE MASTER PLANETS my third completed novel. Currently I'm working on my next book, STUPID SCHOOL, and a collection of short stories.