I was born sometime last century in Waseca, a small town in Southern Minnesota, and grew up on a small dairy farm. It was also home to some sheep, hogs, ducks and chickens, a few dogs, and a couple dozen cats. At age 15, my first paid journalism job was as a high school sports writer for the Waseca County News. Big money. Two dollars an article.
Following a stint as an Army intelligence analyst, I finished undergraduate school. I worked as a police officer in Rochester, Minnesota for a few years before enrolling in law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For almost a decade I was a tall-building lawyer and later, the only partner with a beard in the largest law firm in Dallas.
My most recent job was as a university professor of criminal justice at Hamline University in St. Paul. Now I spend a good share of my time pursuing my long-held passion for writing.
Besides writing, my other passions include long-distance running (a bit shorter than last century) and technical mountaineering in the Mountain West, Canada, and European Alps. I also spend a lot of time in the Northwoods of Wisconsin hunting for mushrooms and angling for small fish in its crystal-clear lakes. Like Marlena Von Jaeger, my female protagonist, I can filet a fish in a minute or less.
I am a member of Sisters in Crime and its local chapter, Twin Cities Sisters in Crime, and a sustaining member of The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Sandwiched around my writing are lengthy volunteer ranger assignments with the National Park Service and shorter volunteer gigs wielding a chainsaw for Team Rubicon in tornado and flood zones.