Basically, I'm a reasonably well-built (the tallest in my family, so I may be completely deluded), widely published illustrator (the unappealing alternative is a unemployed,starving illustrator)---born in Tennessee and, for better or worse, irredeemably Southern. My degrees are all in literature and linguistics. ....and, no, I don't correct folks' spelling or grammar when they write to me. To be honest?....grading and correcting other folks' writing is not nearly as exciting, sexy, and invigorating as it looks in the movies and on your television set.

As for hobbies? I'm paid to do what used to be my hobby, but I still garden, hike (I grew up in the mountains), read a great deal, travel often (the police could find me at my Durham house only about 1/2 of the year), and remain sort of obsessed with music of various sorts. I cultivate a wide circle of high-maintainance (not necessarily a bad thing) friends and family, spend a lot of time repairing doorknobs and plumbing in this old house, and otherwise stay busy with my terriers and my garden. The terriers are small, and the garden is big. I work at home and for myself (which means that I'm generally working for about twelve people at any given time). I think that about sums us up.

Well, I don't go around with a shopping list regarding whom I'd like to meet. At this age, I prefer to just be surprised (at the risk of sounding more-than-usually awful, I've got to say that this seems to happen less and less as time goes by....). the final fact is that I enjoy meeting folks.....even the awful ones are at least useful in that they often confirm what I'd already suspected.