I published my first feature in a national magazine while a student at the University of Missouri Journalism School. Since then, I have completed eight nonfiction books for major publishers, written several hundred magazine features, dozens of personal essays and more than one thousand book reviews.
After graduating from the Journalism School, I spent parts of eight years reporting for daily general circulation newspapers while finishing my first book and building a magazine writing career. Since 1978, I have freelanced full-time for magazines, newspapers and book publishers.
In addition to my writing, I have taught investigative reporting and feature writing courses at the Missouri Journalism School, served as executive director of the membership group Investigative Reporters & Editors, and coached countless journalists about information-gathering and narrative techniques.
I am currently researching and writing a biography of Garry Trudeau, under contract to a major publisher.
I devote significant effort to these not-for-profit groups: National Book Critics Circle, American Society of Journalists & Authors, Biographers International Organization (BIO), and the Midwest Innocence Project.
I am married and the father of two grown children.
