I bought my first album at the age of ten. It was called Meet the Beatles. My big purchase happened on a school night, and my mother removed it from my room an hour past my bedtime after repeatedly telling me to turn it off. Being a kind soul and a music lover, she returned it first thing in the morning, and I listened non-stop until Dad drove my sister and I to school.

Mom didn’t look particularly surprised when the school nurse drove me home a half hour later with a phantom belly ache. She also wasn’t surprised to hear the album playing before the nurse left the house. But she was at a loss for words when they heard me trying to pick out the chords to I Wanna Hold Your Hand. It helped that the nurse lived less than a block away, and was friends with Mom.

In those days stay-at-home mothers were the norm, and our family budget didn’t allow for guitar lessons. But in my late teens I did manage to pick up quite a bit from the garage band down the street. I was a couple of years older than most of the band members, and on the concert committee at our local Penn State University campus. I took on the role of managing the band while playing in a trio on the side. At the time I was a bit overwhelmed. One of the guitarists from the garage band was progressing at an exceptional rate. In fact, most of the band members were sounding like pros. As it turned out, Robbie, the guitarist, and Jiggs, the drummer, went on to form a trio with Noel Redding, the bass player from The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

My skill level improved over time, and I moved from Northeastern PA to San Diego hoping to earn a living as a musician. Within days of my arrival I met a talented lead guitarist with some local connections, and it looked as though my rock & roll dreams were about to come true. But sometimes fate has a way of hitting a sour note at the least opportune moment. Just as our band was coming together I shattered my left wrist playing a pickup game of football. I had bone graft surgery and spent 23 of the next 24 months in a cast.     Rehab brought back most of my dexterity, but I couldn’t grip a guitar for more than 15 minutes without getting shooting pains and losing power. Over the next five years I tried to rebuild the strength, but kept hitting a wall around the 15 minute mark.

Eventually, I gave up trying and focused on my job as a writer. I wrote resumes, newspaper articles, a careers column, and even wrote scripts for a comedy television program for two seasons. But my passion for music never died.

I transitioned into writing novels in 2004. My police detective father got me interested in mysteries at an early age. In crafting my fictional series PI, Jason Duffy, I incorporated some of my own history. Jason’s reason for ending his career as a club musician was the band’s inability to write original material. So he left the band and entered into a PI internship at the age of 25.

The year after I completed the first novel in the series, Rock & Roll Homicide, I moved back to PA and ran into Robbie. He was giving guitar lessons at a local studio. I decided to see if my 20 year layoff from playing guitar had improved the strength in my wrist. To my surprise I was able to play pain free for over an hour, so I took lessons for the next two years.

By the time Rock & Roll Rip-Off was released, I incorporated a dozen classic rock cover songs into my presentation at bookstores, record stores, and libraries. I described characters and scenes from my novels by relating them to well-known songs. My rock & roll road not taken was finally converging with my writing career.

On 9/1/11 The Concert Killer was released. This is my PI’s first serial killer case, and opens on the 4^th murder. To introduce the novel I developed a unique book trailer that features an original song by the same name. The verses describe the first three murders and serve as a prequel to the book. The accompanying trailer  photos depict what is happening in the verses.

For the first time since my accident I feel like I’ve moved musically beyond my skill level on the day my wrist was shattered. The fork in my road of life has reached a nexus point where my passions for writing and music have fused. I’m hoping that you will take the time to contact me and share a story of how you overcame obstacles for the sake of your passion, whatever that may be.