Stephan's Journey

Biographie de Joe McCord

Born in Minnesota, my parents had the uncommon good sense to leave the cold of that beautiful but snowbound state for the sunny climes of Southern California. Later we moved to the San Francisco Bay area and I essentially grew up there, attending high school and earning a bachelor's degree in History from the University of California, Berkeley. Married, with children, I intended to live there the remainder of my life, moving up through the ranks of Journalism.
However, during the Viet Nam fracas, Uncle Sam invited me to become a full time member of his fine fighting force. Since, as a Reserve lieutenant, my other choice was a court martial, I decided to accept Uncle's offer. What I didn't expect to do was stay in uniform for twenty-eight years, but that's what happened. After retirement, I started my own business (a form of journalism) but continued creative writing on the side until I joined a "self-help creative writing group" where one member challenged me to "go long" and write a novel instead of just short stories.
It took more than a year with group members helping me, chapter by chapter at our bimonthly meetings, polishing, editing. and refining. I live in Peoria, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) with an understanding wife and a demanding cat. One encourages me to write more while the other demands my full-time attention to satisfy her needs. Do I need to identify which is which?Well, I do have two other books in the works--neither of them remotely related to Stephan's Journey.