My Story
Stories that inspired my characters and books.
Journey Into the Cold War
I grew up on a small Wisconsin farmhouse in the 1950s, where my world expanded through the stories of Slavic immigrants. With a child's ear, I listened as they told tales of their new lives and hinted at the horrors they had escaped—starvation, massacres, and war.
A pause, a glance, a shake of the head; these were the fragments of truth they shared, teaching me early lessons in deception and the silences that speak volumes.
From the Farm to the Front Lines
In 1965, I left the farm for the University of Wisconsin. My world expanded dramatically, from 200 miles to a new reality of brilliant New Yorkers, intense political debates, and anti-war riots.
I chose to study the Russian language, hoping to fill in the unspoken pauses of my childhood visitors. Football was replaced by books, and my simple worldview was challenged by the complex philosophies of Malraux and Dostoevsky and the harsh history of Robert Conquest. My certainties began to dissolve in the tear gas and debate of campus life.
The Long War Within
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A Worldview Evolves:
My studies and the tumultuous world around me taught me that truth was a fluid, shifting concept. I came to believe that the Communist and Fascist ideologies were two sides of the same coin, both capable of industrial-scale genocide.
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Serving in the Shadows:
I joined the Air Force as a volunteer and became an intelligence officer, serving along the Soviet Union's perimeter. My background made me acutely aware of the deception and maskirovka used by the KGB and GRU. It was a role that fit my unique perspective on truth and lies.
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Revisiting the Battlefields:
I left the military in 1989, just months before the Berlin Wall fell. Now, I revisit these battlefields of the mind in my writing. Through my characters, I explore how individuals navigate deceit and choose between survival and conscience.
The Long War Series
The Long War series follows four lives through this shadowed struggle. It is a story told not only on the battlefield, but in the secrets, lies, and hearts of those caught between nations. It is a tale of an American soldier, his Canadian pianist love, a Soviet agent, and a Russian storyteller.
