An Attempt to Explain a Person
I don't like having my picture taken...so imagine this is me with some weird symbol
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So the basics: I was born in Philadelphia but moved to Southern New Jersey when I was five years old. I was raised in a suburban Jewish home. I'm an atheist nowadays (not through any fault of my parents). When I stopped growing taller I reached just shy of 5'10". When I was in college I weighed 110 lbs. When I finished typing these words I am much, much heavier.
I was shy in high school. Maybe one or two kids knew I was gay but I kept the secret well. I played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons (I would later write gaming stuff for TSR, White Wolf, and other companies now long-since dead). I went to Tulane University in New Orleans because my parents always wanted to visit there. In my freshman year the drinking age in Louisana was still eighteen. Needless to say I learned a lot of alcohol, alcohol poisoning, and alcoholism during my four years at Tulane. I rushed a fraternity (people in fraternity never ever refer to them as "frats") because I was infatuated with a boy. Not a good reason and when he left the fraternity I did soon after. I sold my first short story when I was seventeen, received the magazine (which no one will remember) and the check a year later, and have since had over a hundred articles, essays, and short stories published. Oh, and a novel. I kissed my first boy when I was twenty. Soon after that kiss I lost my virginity. It was nothing like the movies. I think many of my fictional characters have enjoyed their first times more. And some less. I don't remember all their trysts. Upon graduation with an English degree I worked in New York City, Bayonne, Philadelphia, and Boston for various publishers: I was an editorial assistant, academic book buyer, a religious book buyer (yes, ironic considering my lack of faith), director of marketing, and those are just official titles. Pretty much my adult career has revolved around book publishing and sales. I did go back for a masters degree in liberal studies from Rutgers University. I finally mastered something. After working for a decade as a survey analyst for a human resources consulting firm, I left my beloved New Jersey for a much more rural clime: Western Massachusetts. I work for one of the preeminent boarding schools in the nation. I'm still writing on occasion. Last I checked I'm still gay (checks in the mirror). Yep.
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