Most of my writing history is non-fiction, though as a columnist at The San Diego Union (1978-92) I did fantasize quite a bit. As a journalist and columnist, I believe in word count, understatement, getting in, and getting out. I am the author of five non-fiction books, the latest being "Warbirds - How They Played the Game, " available at Amazon. I decided to undertake fiction two years ago. My first effort, "Higgsfest, " which can be found at this site, is fiction based in non-fiction, which has provided me a useful transition. I believe in reading as recreational which has not precluded my completion of "Winds of War, " for example. I have always enjoyed Herman Wouk as a fictionalizer of fact. "The Caine Mutiny" was the first post-Black Beauty book I read. I majored in English LIt. at Stanford, served in the Army 1966-69 (no Vietnam) and got into newspapers after the Army because I was married and needed a job and knew I could write as well as anything I had ever seen on a front page..