A love of writing has led me from non-fiction (3 books and several editorships) to here, to now, to this first novel. Growing up in the Midwest, I wrote and colored short stories with crayons on wide-ruled Big Chief tablets (the kind you could still see wood chips in), typed term papers on erasable bond paper, and bought a “real” computer in 1981 with 5 ¼” floppies (a.k.a. Frisbees); today I write on a laptop in a cat-scratched forest-green recliner.

        After stints in Illinois, Alaska, Michigan and the Seattle area, I’ve landed back in the Midwest again. Tomás and Hassad “live” there as well in many incarnations, but were recently seen alive and well at a Cirque de Soleil performance back in Seattle.

        I love classic rock and rap from Led Zeppelin to Run D.M.C., Kid Rock, the White Stripes, and World music. When I discovered a former life as an architect, is it any wonder that I came back and scribbled this book about a rock ‘n’ roll-loving architect and a Moroccan doesn’t-give-a-damn smuggler?

        Rejected en masse by agents and more traditional publishers, I went to Publish America, finally accepted by this avant-garde company who asked for manuscripts that envisioned “a challenge.” A challenge, indeed, The Falcon Room was published in 2003. This year, 2004, I began a sequel and Tomás and Hassad live again!