In Chicago with Jennifer Szunko of ForeWord Reviews For a writer, there are few things more thrilling and satisfying that having your work recognized. We work alone in dark rooms, muttering and moaning over our keyboards, while everyone else is outside having fun. It is that bad, really. Think about it. Poor us. And you are never sure whether or not what you are banging out on the blank screen will make any sense to anyone but yourself. You self-confidence all depends on your mood and how all...

I had just gotten back home to Virginia in early May after completing a 1,250-mile voyage from Guam to the Philippines in a forty-two foot sailboat when I got the news that my novel, Brothers of the Fire Star, had been selected by ForeWord Reviews as a finalist in their 2012 Book of the Year awards.The winners will be announced in Chicago on June 28th at the annual convention of the American Library Association. I plan on being there. This recognition was both ironic and wonderful because duri...

How do you write a novel? Slowly and with passion. In 1997 my wife and I had been teaching in Europe for fourteen years and, although we loved life on the Continent, we had started casting about for a new adventure, preferably one that included our passion for sailing. As luck would have it, a new school system was being opened on the island of Guahan (Guam), America's outpost in the far Pacific, and we were offered jobs. I had been writing for many years and some of my short stories had recen...