I was born in Washburn, Wisconsin. My first eleven years were on the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe reservation. (rez) At age eleven my mom packed up and moved the family to the big city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (My first culture shock)

  I bounced around different high schools my freshman and sophomore years. (We moved many times) My junior and senior years I attended Intermountain High School, an all-Indian boarding school in Brigham City, Utah. 

  After high school (1984), I decided to follow in my uncles and cousins footsteps. I enrolled in the United States Marine Corp for four years of duty.  But first I had six months before boot camp started, so I attended the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater for a semester. I experienced the campus life. I think I liked it too much, because I wanted to stay, but had to leave for duty.

  I took English Literature classes at every school I attended. I remember writing many thesises and reports on a variety of subjects. I learned proper sentence structure and puncuation usage. Of course, I was a kid in a military uniform and enjoyed the benefits.  Writing was not in my future at that time.

  While in the USMC, I attended aviation supply job training in Meridian, Mississippi. Still more report writing. (Military reports, military terminology.) While on night watches and weekend barracks duty I would read military manuals with some novels thrown in during down time. (Stephen King) I was stationed at Kaneohe Bay Air Station, Hawaii for three years. (Second culture shock. Tough duty right!) The one thing I thought was very cool was "Aloha Fridays," which meant punch out time was always at noon. We had major boogie boarding and surfing to do. I wasn’t going to say no to that custom. I think many businesses still utilize this motivation tool stateside.

  Fast forward to writing my "how to" book. In March of 1991 I started working at Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin selling pulltabs. I was promoted to department manager after one year of selling. Soon after I was enrolled in every management seminar and class available. It seem like I was attended two classes every week for a year. Some great, some okay, but I needed the help.

  The best seminar was "The Disney Approach to Quality Service" given at Walt Disney World’s Disney Instititue in Orlando, Florida. This three day seminar took a rare behind the scenes look at Disney's resorts. From orientation to wardrobe, I learned the well known and successful Disney approach to guest service.

  I came back to work highly motivated. Some goals I had to implement when I got back to work was to write a training manual to increase my department’s revenue. I started writing and writing and then rewriting. The writing finally ended with over one hundred rough draft pages. This was enough information for a book.

  I decided to look into book publishing. I read some books on how to get published. Wrote to agents and did queries to publishers. I found out that a gambling book does not interested many publishing houses. I was suprised to see that many well known authors started out with self published books and how to books. So, I decided to self publish.

  That was in 2001. Today, my previous marketing and prior sales experienced helped me expose my book to the gambling world. If I had to start over again, I would change many things I did along the way. (Information resources, cover and contact information to name just a few.) Live and learn right!

  The first question everyone asks first is "What are you working on?" Well, I am working on a non-fiction novel. I am currently researching the era the novel is set in.(1941 to present) It is going to be a unique friendship development story between kids during a time of hardship and alienation of characters. This true story has many twists and turns intermingled with underlying facts.

  I am trying to write as much as possible, but I am also a recent father. My son was born in 2003. (Aidan) He is keeping me very busy. I am married and have two step children. (Joey and Selena)

  I hope you enjoy my website and use some of the links to manufactures and vendors. If you happened upon my website for raising revenue, pulltab selling is a fast fundraising tool for charities and non-profit organizations.

About Me

The carved pieces on left are Maya.

Top face is mask from Haida tribe.

Right is from Ojibwe beadwork.

 

Native artwork is courtesy of Dover Publications.