Can we skip this part? (laughs) Talking about myself is a lot harder that writing, that’s for sure. Let’s see… I grew up in southern California, spent a lot of years in northern New Mexico. I’ve been living here in New Zealand for over a decade now.
I’m mostly a musician, I guess, with a background in horses as well. I’m a senior lecturer in music at a major university here, but I got my degrees later in life. I teach recording, songwriting, stagecraft and performance skills and other things. My research lies in the area of digital culture and ecosystems, exploring how this digital age is affecting humankind in general, and music and the arts especially.
I spent most of my musical years out there playing music. I play a whole bunch of varied and weird instruments. In addition to guitar, I play mandolin, banjo, Dobro, accordion, lap steel, pedal steel, bass, piano, and a few other obscure instruments like mandocello, Theremin, and the musical saw. I play on a lot of records as a recording session musician for other artists, and I have four or five of my own albums out there in the world.
I was a saddlemaker for many years, and I still keep my hands in the leatherwork from time to time. These days it’s usually me, ruining a perfectly good guitar by covering it in fancy carved leather. Sort of cowboying it up. Not practical, but it’s a lot of fun.
As for writing books, this is the first full length work I’ve done (unless you count my doctoral thesis… but nobody actually reads those, do they?). I’ve been a songwriter most of my life, so I do a lot of short form writing; poems, blogs, short stories. And academic conference papers for geeks like me.
Oh, and I have two grown daughters who are a LOT smarter and more worldly than I’ll ever be.