My Biography

Writing fiction arose from the 20 years of experience I accumulated sailing the Amedee, my 1980, 40’ Amel Ketch. My business partner and I bought the boat in Fort Lauderdale in 1982.

We sailed this wonderful boat for 30 days each year, covering the Mosquitoes Coast in the Yucatan as well as most of the islands in the Caribbean basin.

In 2002 we sold the Amedee. Thereafter I began writing an unpublished book which I called “The Amedee Saga”. This was a diary of our experiences as sailors from the standpoint of a Captain reciting a history of these adventures. The book also contains prints of most of the paintings I rendered during this 20-year adventure.

While my professional experience as an attorney involves copious writing of briefs and appeals, even to the U.S. Supreme Court (1983), at that time I had not ventured into fiction writing. It became apparent to me that the many experiences derived from this extended adventure could be told via characters in a novel. This would also allow a method to incorporate a way to include the vast experience I have accumulated in many diverse areas of my life into the novel. As a young child, I recall asking my mother how I could acquire information to use in a sermon I was preparing. She told me that this only came from the accumulated experience of life. I now realize the truth of this, and I concluded I have a vast storage chest where all my life experiences were kept. I also realized that people actually like to hear these stories. Beginning with my hometown, Phenix City, Alabama, it contributed a unique history and most people do not personally know this history. Most were not around when Marshall Law was declared in 1954 and the military was sent in at that time to clean up the corruption. When they killed the Alabama Attorney General, which gave the reason for the Marshall Law, I was three blocks away from the event painting scenery for a dance reviews. I was 17 years old. I can only say, in limited space, that the extent of my treasure trove of live experiences covers a full scale from the simple to the sublime; from the believable to things that stretch the imagination. In essence, this is an exciting world that I will continue to explore in depicting life as an eternal battle between good and evil. This effort will continue with our hero, Chic Sparks, in the 3rd edition.