I'm a retired history teacher living in Minnesota. I was born in Maine in 1949, studied at Johns Hopkins and Purdue (Ph.D. 1977; my fields are military history, European diplomatic history, and modern Germany), and taught at a prep school in Minnesota (Shattuck-St. Mary's) from 1978 to 2016. I began writing the "Mercenaries" books in 2001. I got a fine agent for "Storm Approaching," but even fine agents do not always sell books, so, after a long wait on one major publisher—the first reader approved it, the second did not—I decided to publish the book myself. There are three more volumes in the series—Gold and Glory, Resolution, and The Free Lands. I have also published And Gladly Teach, a satirical novel about a boarding school, and Hodgepodge, a small book of humorous essays on many topics.