About Me

As I’ve already said, my name is Peter. I’m in the middle years of my life, which means that I have one foot planted firmly in the middle of the 20th Century and one planted, not so firmly, in the following. I mention this only to let you know that I’m a seasoned individual with every intention of seeing the middle of the 21st century. I’ll get to the “not so firmly” comment in a minute.

The years behind me include a variety of widely divergent occupational pursuits. Along the way I’ve picked up the odd skill or two which shape the person I am today. My first honest to God paycheck paying job was as a Page shelving books in the Ashtabula Public Library. Ashtabula, OH is the town in which I was brought into this world and in which I spent my formative years.

Before landing the Page job I mowed a lot of lawns, shoveled a lot snow, weeded a lot of gardens and delivered a lot of newspapers. In my high school years I flipped a lot of burgers over at the Red Barn and bagged a lot of groceries up at the Golden Dawn. After graduation I worked at the Dunn Rubber & Plastic Co. vulcanizing rubber tubes to be later cut into gaskets. Gaskets of all sizes. It was hot, sweaty, repetitive work; the sort of which I am eternally grateful I did not commit to making a career.

I went off to college, majored in Wildlife Biology for a couple of years and finally ended up with an English degree. While doing that I worked nights at Hamilton Bakery in Fort Collins, CO. Russ, the owner was like a second father to me; his wife, the lovely Helen, more like a grandmother. These were good years. I learned a trade. I’m still a damned good baker.

Then I did my first stint as a freelance writer. That didn’t work out so well. It was hard squeezing money out of people. Didn’t they know I was the next great American writer with the next great American novel stuffed in my hip pocket? Suffice it to say, I did the requisite number of years prep-cooking, bar tending, and kicking around from one job to the next. Did I mention that I was an assistant sawyer at Cook Lumber Company?