The first thing you should know about me is that I don't particularly like talking about myself.  Hence, this is sort of short.  The basics (foundation for what follows) are these:  I'm 30 (as of 5.31.03), a white male (but don't hold that against me), a poet, writer, musician and publisher.  There are other things that I do, but we might get to those later...for our purposes here, that's what you need to know.

          I started writing when I was around 13 or so, though my first taste of creativity was in fourth grade.  A writing assignment...write a poem or description about a postcard, one of a variety handed out by my teacher.  I enjoyed it and continued with occasional descriptions here and there until junior high school. That gave way to notebooks that, though some pieces of them remain, for the most part, have been thrown away.  No matter...I can write more.  I tend not to hang on to snippets and pieces.  If they don't find a home or grow into something they get tossed...no room for wayward metaphors around here.  Yeah.  Anyway, I started playing music at around the same time and soon the bass and the dictionary had taken the place of baseball, football and pro wrestling.
 

         As I grew as a "creative person," my life opened up too.  I had found out just prior to my eleventh birthday that I was (well, I still am and always shall be) diabetic, so responsibility became a major word for my palette of life.  I started thinking instead of just watching and noticing things like I'd done as a kid.  Through high school I played in bands and wrote songs, sometimes not knowing where the song lyrics ended and the poetry began...just a slight difference anyway.  When I hit college I realized the world of publishing, of sending stuff out and getting all these nifty rejection letters in the mail.
 

         That made my day.  I'm a completeness freak.  In high school and college I would sit to write a paper, could be 3 pages, could be 30, and do it in one sitting (if the research was done beforehand).  I just hate leaving things partially done.  So, at age 22, I decided to forego the standard route of poets and just do it myself, using the attitude I'd learned in playing music.  Why search for someone to help when you can at the very least lay the foundation for yourself?  I have, though, been published quite a few times in smaller journals for poetry and in local music zines with essays on music/bands.
 

          I gathered many poems and began designing what would become my first book, A Complete Sentience (poems for the breakfast table), which was released in June of 1996 on my label imprint, also the name of my music publishing company through ASCAP, Diabolical Kitten Publishing.  It sold well, looked good and got good reviews in the local Greater Cincinnati market.  Fast forward through two bands to November of 1997 and Tripping Darkly, a loosely tied poetic journey through my darker mental recesses, is released.  Good words said about it, though some were a tad confused by the inherent darkness in it, and good sales.  In 1999 I released Soliloquy to the world and then The Mirror Suite followed in 2000.  All four collections of poetry are, by the way, for sale back on the Diabolical Kitten Publishing Catalog.  A new book, tentatively titled Rendering The Impossible, is almost complete.
 

      I've been tempted to delve into politics, but then I step back and realize that it's just (probably) not worth it.  I've been tempted to say some things that I probably shouldn't...and then I do anyway.  I've been tempted to do some very dangerous things to sell books, but I don't.  The sample pages are up and the readings are announced and more people than I would've imagined have been willing to throw down a few bucks for a book or two.  This online thing works pretty well for marketing, though I'm sure I could do better.  I'm not as computer savvy as I may (or may not) seem.
 

        I love music.
        I love poetry.
        I love social issues.
        I love religious issues.
        I love studying the icons of our time.
        I love bass.
        I love honest songs.
        As sick as it may seem, I love who I am.
        But, like any artistic creature, I also loathe who I am as well.
        Life without parodox is life without oxygen.
 

Furthermore:

        Let's see...those fun facts that most people want to know...I'm a Gemini, love most sports but mainly football (longtime Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan...join the bandwagon I've been riding for so many years), baseball (S.F. Giants & Cincy Reds), and hockey (Florida Panthers), love asparagus, would kill for a plateful of my mom's spaghetti or anything Italian and truly miss what t.v. used to be.

        Since Northern Exposure went off the air, t.v. has just sucked.  Don't watch t.v....read some poetry, preferably mine (shameless huckstering never hurt anybody, right?).