At various times in my career, I've been a newspaper crime reporter, a magazine editor, a freelance writer for publications ranging
from GQ and the Los Angeles Times Magazine to Mother Jones, a nonfiction author for HarperCollins, and a web content creator and blogger
for brand-name media sites such as the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the AARP.
But that list
of credentials doesn't quite convey the essence of what I've done and what I know how to do. I'm a meticulous reporter,
one who amasses and analyzes every bit of background I can find on a subject, and who prepares extensively for interviews
to come up with incisive questions. I gather details, but I focus upon where they fit into the big picture, and look for the context
that makes some facts significant. When I sit down to write, I enjoy the challenge of taking a complicated situation or a seemingly
contradictory set of facts, and making sense of it all in a way that a reader easily can understand.
I've applied that approach
to numerous subjects. As a long-form journalist for magazines, I delved into the disappearance of Chicago heiress Helen
Brach, explored the strange, paranoid world of countersurveillance experts, and wrangled a rare interview with the late Dwayne Andreas,
the secretive billionaire grain-merchant who was a confidant of dictators and Presidents. In recent years, my interests have gravitated
toward science, the environment, and technological advances, and how these these all create nascent social and economic
trends. As a frequent writer for Urban Land magazine, I've gradually developed an expertise in writing about innovation in the
built environment of cities.
I'm a native of McKeesport, Pa., which I should mention is not where artist Andy Warhol grew up,
even though he sometimes liked to tell people that as a joke. (It is, however, the hometown of infamous diamond thief Jack Roland
"Murph the Surf" Murphy.) I earned a bachelors degree in journalism from Penn State University, and worked as a newspaper reporter
in Pittsburgh and southern California, and as staff writer at Baltimore magazine. I also was a contributing editor at Regardie's,
the Washington business and politicial magazine, and for several years wrote the "Is This a Good Idea" blog for the Science Channel's
website. With Martin J. Smith, I co-wrote two books, POPLORICA and OOPS, about the origin of modern cultural trends. (Both have been
reissued in Kindle editions).
I've won a number of awards for my work, including second place in the "Best Writing" category
from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, a silver medal in the "Writer of the Year" category from the City and Regional
Magazines Association, and first prize in profile writing from the Western Journalism Association for a story I wrote about then-teenage
YouTube sensation Rebecca "Friday" Black.
I currently live and work in the Washington, DC area. When I'm not
writing, I'm a martial arts enthusiast who earned a black sash in kung fu in 2013, a runner, classic movie
and detective novel buff, and a fan of Vietnamese cuisine and obscure indie rock bands, and enjoy snapping odd images
with my smart phone camera.