He is a former college history professor who is also a novelist. Among some of his other notable occupations have been amusement park games barker, Chicago-area taxi driver, steel worker, middle school custodian, security guard and supervisor of security guards, analyst intern at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich; and experienced hitchhiker across much of the United States. He has also traveled to several European countries and to China twice. As a result, he is able to apply his personal background and his knowledge of various settings to his stories. He is long married and has a twenty-three-year-old daughter.