Short History

From the left: Charles, Nicholas, Philip, Carole, Holly.

Sapulpa, Oklahoma 1971 

I was born in Tulsa in 1971 but grew up in OKC. Also lived, often briefly, in;

Sapulpa, Chickasha, Broken Arrow (Tulsa), Bethany (Oklahoma City), Norman, Edmond, and last but not least, the very cool little city Muskogee, Oklahoma.

My schooling was a mix of big public schools and a small private school (aka prep or college Preparatory school. With plenty of rich preppies.)

Went straight from high school into college and into a master's program.

Left Oklahoma from Muskogee in 2001 and ended up in Austin TX where I've lived for the last 23 years.

After 2 years studying writing in the Master's program at UCO in Edmond, OK, I was headed for LA with dreams of writing screenplays, but I decided to stay here (Austin, aka The ATX).

My second choice masters thesis was a screenplay (as I've mentioned, my first thesis was my unfinished novel.)

The screenplay ("The Dead Space" originally titled "Fast Forward") was in a box in my apartment for years. When I finally pulled it out and read for the first time in decades, I was really embarrassed for my younger self. It was pretty bad, hehe. Kind of a cross between the "Scream" movie (there was only one of them at the time I wrote it) and "Video Drome."

It had a great basic idea and outline, but my execution was so amateur I was shocked.

My original thesis ("The Sound Of Silence") was a novel I half-finished. It was great. Even the professional writer "artist in residence" liked it. But it stalled out halfway through perhaps not coincidentally when she left and this utter putz from Kentucky arrived.

Even though I made it to the middle, I've never gotten around to finishing the novel.

I've also composed music (lots of it). Some very complex pieces and professional sounding songs (not just my opinion.) And others just raw bare bones sketches.

I also created various types of art (especially at university, in an undeclared minor in art and design.)

But, so far, I've just been running circles around myself.

From John Lennon's song "Beautiful Boy" (about his son with Yoko);

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

From the "Egyptian Book Of The Dead";

"ba ar pet, sat ar ta"

(soul to heaven, body to earth)