I wrote five novels about my problems and then I ran out of problems so I wrote movies because you don't have to have problems to write movies. After a few years of that I developed all new problems so I went back to novels and that's where I am now. If you want the bio stuff, keep reading. If you don't, stop here. I suggest you go to bed, or read a book. Make yourself useful.

"He was born in Oklahoma and his mother's name was Thelma Liz." That's a Ray Wylie Hubbard song but I lived it. I spent my summer rite-of-passage years in Wyoming. I worked over 40 entry-level jobs including driving an ice cream truck, skinning elk, cooking in a Chinese restaurant, trail inventory for the Forest Service, gardener for the Rockefellers, pizza parlor manager, belt buckle buffer, and countless dishwashing jobs. Throughout this period I lived most of the year on public lands, first in a tent and later in a Cheyenne tipi. The more mind-numbing jobs have helped me to hone my creative skills, but all of these experiences have helped me to learn to appreciate life and its inherent follies.

I have published eight novels and a book of columns. I wrote eleven screenplays for hire; two have been made into movies. I turned forty with no phone, TV, or flush toilet and spent more time talking to the characters in my head than the people around me. Now have seven phone lines, four TVs I don't watch, three flush toilets, and a two-headed shower. My wife and I recently adopted a little girl from China. I'm now living happily (indoors) with my family (wife, Carol; son, Kyle; daughter, Leila) in Jackson, Wyoming.