I was born in Iowa, but grew up in Wisconson and Minnasota. While preparing this bio I was thinking that my birthplace, Iowa, is one of the easiest states to spell. Not only because it is only four letters long, but phonetic, second only to Ohio (O-hi-O, easy!). I considered maybe Utah as well, but Utha didn’t look correct when I typed it. I had a lot of trouble reading and writing as a kid, and now, as a grown-ass man, I can still only spell about a third of the US states with confidence. Note, I grew up, completed college, and started a career reliant on a pocket dictionary and a bag of tricks to navigate the world of words. Upon arrival of computer word-processing and spell-check, l felt like a sudden genius as I was now able to more freely put my thoughts into words, and eventually became an author. An embarrassingly ridiculous comparison I know, but the illumination was like well water being pumped into one hand as the word water was typed with the other. Ambulance Man is the story of transforming my childhood obsession with chasing after sirens into a career as a paramedic. That alone makes for a good read, but there is an essential subtext, my reading problem, which is pictorially represented in the book cover where the word ‘ambulance’ is mirrored, as was sometimes done so drivers would see the word correctly in their rear-view mirror. When you consider all the things to fear in ambulance work, misspelling tongue, or all variety of street names or medical procedures, would seem low on the list. But I started ambulance work in the early 80s, pre-911 when you spoke directly to the caller, and completed hand-written reports that became part of the medical record. If you spelled knee without a ‘k’, you’ll look like an idiot. I was no idyit!