[close] I grew up in Jacksonville, FL, on the St. John’s river. Somewhat of a Huck Finn childhood. Most afternoons were spent mullet fishing, canoeing, pegging cars with overripe tangerines—it really got fun when the red tail lights lit and the reverse gears ground metal on metal, or the backyard Superbowl which we replayed most everyday. Through high school, football was my life. School was the avenue that allowed me to play. I walked on at Georgia Tech in 1999 and played one year under Bobby Ross—until I got hurt, cracking a vertebrae in my back and they carried me off. Transferred to Florida State and tried to become a student. Eventually landed in the English department after escaping Accounting with a “D.” I was de-lighted. After graduation, I moved to Atlanta and started waiting tables at Houston’s Restaurant so I could save up money to buy a ring. Christy and I married in 1993, we drove to Virginia Beach, where she put me through Grad school. When I wasn’t in class, I worked the morning preload for Ma Brown (UPS). Went to work at 2 or 3 am, and clocked out about 9 am. Didn’t get much sleep for almost 3 years. In 1997 we got pregnant with Charlie and returned to Jacksonville—so our kids could grow up around our families. When not a single educational institution in Jacksonville would hire me (including my alma mater, Bolles High School), my brother-in-law had mercy on me and gave me a job selling insurance. Two years passed and to make a real long story short, a Fortune 500 company offered me a V.P.’s position with a six figure salary, six figure signing bonus, etc. I turned them down, resigned from the insurance agency, began pressure washing, building docks etc., and began trying to sell my novel—what is now The Dead Don’t Dance. That was eight years ago. Where the River Ends is my sixth novel. [close]