About Me

Because the word “retired” sounds like I bought a new set of Goodyears for the car I’d rather say I worked for the Flint Public Library for 32 years before exiting public service and turned to writing books instead of selecting, collecting and preserving them for the public good. I also spent 20 years as a freelance book reviewer for the Flint Journal.

In college I took a required course on Michigan history in which the grade was determined in large part by the amount of self-directed supplemented reading on Michigan history students waded through. After reading about King Strang, the Pontiac War, and the early exploration of the Great Lakes I simply fell in love with Michigan’s unique and fascinating history. My love and appreciation for the state began as a kid with my first trip to the U.P. It only deepened as the years passed and my wife and kids camped from Copper Harbor to Monroe and a few magic days on Isle Royale. In the 1950s I was even a witness to Michigan history in the making. It was while crossing the Straits of Mackinac in a ferry and seeing the pillars of Big Mac rising out of the waters and reaching for the sky.

I was naturally drawn to writing about our state and over the years I have written more than a half dozen books, both travel and history, on Michigan and the Great Lakes. One book was self-published, and the others were produced by small independent publishers. As a writer I became very aware of the difficulty of self-published and small press authors getting any publicity for their books and reaching readers, librarians, and independent bookstores. This became even more difficult when newspapers lost advertising revenue to the internet and dropped book reviews among many other cutbacks.

The creation of Michigan in Books was in part the idea of creating a venue for authors and publishers to publicize their books and reach out to librarians and readers. Admittedly, the major reason continued to be my fascination with Michigan and a desire to see, read, and review what is written about our state. Or I’m just a librarian who doesn’t want to retire and loves recommending books to readers.

My writing career has spanned more than 30 years and I have three books currently in print. They are:

In the Grip of the Whirlwind: The Armistice Day Storm of 1940

Stick ‘em Up: Michigan Bank Robberies of the 1920s & 1930s

Michigan State and National Parks: A Complete Guide