A few words about how I got this way: I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens, and attended school in Manhattan. My mother loved books and my father loved baseball. Ever since, literature and the game of baseball have informed my life. I became a writer because I kept finding stories that demanded to be told -- of places, events, and people.

The profile is a favorite form. I’ve published pieces on authors Geoffrey Wolff and Dean Koontz (the Orange County Press Club’s Best Profile of 1995),  Jack Peltason, president of the University of California, and  artist Alexandra Nechita. Some profiles include Mr. October, Reggie Jackson,  www.newportbeachmag.com; Laguna’s Scribe of Summer, baseball author Arnold Hano www.lagunabeachmag.com; and Mark McGwire, in the Shady Canyon Golf Club magazine.

At times a particular issue compels me: I’ve published features on the health hazards of electromagnetic fields, domestic violence, charity telemarketing, Major League Baseball's Urban Youth Academy in Compton, and the Orange County (California) Republican Party. By 2012, I found political issues so compelling that for several years I wrote a semi-monthly column, "Left of Center" for the Newport Beach Independent. newportbeachindy.com

Whenever I discover a place of interest, I like to share the news. My published travel articles include one on a self-guided boat trip up England’s Thames River, a reprise on the 100th anniversary of one of my favorite books, Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat; the Wine Country of Santa Barbara County, published a decade before the appearance of the film, Sideways; and the rekindling of a family tradition with my son and his wife on a camping trip to Mineral King, California. Food goes along with travel, and I’ve written about my encounter with the green chiles of New Mexico, dining out along San Francisco’s cable car routes, and the foolishness of trying to stick to a diet in France (lost weight anyway.)

Speaking of travel, each March I head to Arizona for the NINE Spring Training Conference,  a collegial gathering of baseball scholars, which I co-chaired for ten years. To learn more, please click on All About Baseball.

Over the past decade, memoir has become an abiding interest and I've been working with writers to help them complete and publish their memoirs, work I find profoundly satisfying. Please click On the Craft of Memoir Writing.