Abridged and Select Sequence of Author’s Life Events

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Moves to Grand Island, New York

Moves to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Moves to Niagara Falls, New York

Moves to Indianapolis, Indiana

Moves to San Diego, California

Moves to Somerset, New Jersey

Attends Bradley University and is expelled for drug use

Enters drug rehab in Chicago, Illinois

Exits drug rehab somewhat drug-free

One of three remaining photos of the author in his teenage years, circa 1972

Draft status is reclassified from a student deferment to 1A and with lottery number 47 reports to Fort Dix, New Jersey, for basic training after passing the physical exam

The Vietnam War ends and the draft stops, returns home

Attends Rutgers University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Pace University, State University of New York/Buffalo receiving BA in philosophy and election to Phi Beta Kappa

Attends graduate school at University of California/Berkeley but drops out

Begins writing fiction and editing textbooks

Itinerant janitor, carpenter and handyman in Berkeley, Oakland, and Kentfield, California

Travels throughout Europe

Moves to New York City and begins a wonderful, dissolute, drug-addled life

Works as pamphleteer, stage hand, cab driver, shoe salesman, and office temporary worker while writing his first novel, His Vision of Her

Moves to Paris, France with girlfriend

Returns to New York City without girlfriend

Moves back to Paris and marries girlfriend

Teaches English as a second language and works as a translator and becomes a flâneur

Returns to New York City and divorces first wife

Publishes His Vision of Her

Invited to Scribner’s Celebration of Contemporary Fiction for his novel His Vision of Her

Mixed critical reception of His Vision of Her and its forthright depiction of LGBT characters years before gender identity issues became mainstream leads to tepid sales

Moves to Long Island City, New York to live in seclusion and write

Moves out of Long Island City after apartment building catches fire

Finishes a second novel, This Life Now, but does not find a publisher

Works at one bullshit job after another

Moves to Brooklyn, New York

Writes screenplay for Joseph Conrad’s Victory which Disney almost purchases but ultimately passes on

Relocates to Manhattan after recuperating from a robbery at gunpoint during which he is badly beaten by the perpetrators

Writes screenplay for JM Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians for which Mr. Coetzee has warm words but film rights are unavailable

Works as an editor at several marketing services companies

Drifts into copy writing to earn a living and is hired by an ad agency

Begins writing a new novel, Decade

Becomes creative director at agency

Moves in with girlfriend he meets at work

Quits job and founds his own ad agency

Girlfriend gives birth to first son

Girlfriend gives birth to second son

Sells agency to Saatchi & Saatchi and stays on as president

Girlfriend gives birth to daughter

Marries girlfriend

Leaves Saatchi & Saatchi and becomes president of an operating unit of WPP

Corporate executive portrait, circa 2003

Divorces second wife

Works on Decade for half a decade and ultimately loses the nearly 400 page manuscript in a computer crash

Separates from WPP

Co-founds marketing service agency, but mostly flounders

Begins My Life as a Manifesto

Takes up cycling

Breaks femur in cycling accident and almost dies, becomes too friendly with opioids during recuperation

Competes in the Leadville, Colorado, ultra-marathon, the Leadville Rush 50 and comes in last, winning a special prize

Abandons My Life as a Manifesto

Diagnosed with stage II cancer that is successfully treated, for the most part

Begins work on Harold Hardscrabble originally titled No Way Out

Competes in the Ironman US Championship in New York City and finishes in 12:37:05

Runs the Philadelphia Marathon in 4:26:44

Competes in the Ironman Lake Placid and finishes in 14:05:53

Finishes final draft of the Harold Hardscrabble

Harold Hardscrabble published in March, 2017

Finishes writing BETTER, 2019, which never finds a publisher

Finishes Here for Love but has not found an agent