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Bio

COWBOYIN'

As far as the cowboy side, you may notice a few rodeo connections within my "Education/Writing" bio info. Yep, I cowboyed (for all you English teachers out there, "cowboy" is also a verb in Texas and the American West).

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I was born and raised in Texas and began cowboyin' in high school. I calf-roped with a brother-in-law for about a year before I needed something a little more exciting.

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I began riding bareback broncs and bulls my senior year of high school and won a purty little green ribbon for third place at the third rodeo I went to. I was hooked!

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I rode bares for 13 years, and bulls for 8 of those. Then a partner of mine and I started fighting bulls for a small stock contractor. We did that for 5 years.

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Along the way, I went to work for Rodeo News, the International (Professional) Rodeo Association magazine in Oklahoma as an editor because of my journalism and rodeo background. I had my IRA card for two years. During that time, I was the magazine photographer as well and photographed two International Finals Rodeos (IFR10 and IFR11) for the publication. I also shot major rodeos around the nation, including Madison Square Garden and Nashville, TN.

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When I returned to Texas, I shot rodeo pix  at World Finals Rodeo, Police Officers Rodeo Association Finals, Women's Professional Rodeo Association Finals, some as the official photographer, some for the Texas Rodeo magazine that we published.

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But I'd stopped riding bares by then and was missing the adrenaline rush. Plus, as a rodeo journalist, I had seen some of the very best rodeo clowns and contract acts in the world. As a photog, I saw a lot of rodeos with old, worn-out acts.

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So, I bought a clowning barrel, dusted off some of the props from my bullfighting days, and started as a barrelman and comedy acts performer. I did that for 5 years, as well, until it came time for my oldest son to be born. No pressure from my wife or really even age, I decided it was time to get out of the pen and the danger that came with it nightly.

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But...

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That did not mean I was through with rodeo. About the time I quit the arena, the oil slump sent me back to college. I got a bachelor's and master's degree from UT at San Antonio in English. I was one course away from a specialization in creative writing as well when the creative writing instructor there quit to write full time.

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A couple of short stories from that time and my journalistic and rodeo backgrounds combined to keep my love of rodeo alive on the pages of my short stories and my novel.

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To mangle the words of a football star, "Rodeo been very, very good to me." I hope I'm paying it back a little with every page someone reads of my work.

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EDUCATION/WRITING

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I started in journalism at Temple (Texas) Junior College in the '70s and was a professional journalist for more than 20 years, starting as a cub reporter and working my way up. Some of my more important newspaper positions were publisher (Kerrville Mountain Sun and Marlin Democrat) and editor (Pleasanton Express and Belton Journal). In addition, I was editor of a national newsletter, OSHA Week; senior editor for the nation's leading health education company (WRS in Waco); and editor of Rodeo News magazine in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, the official publication of the International Professional Rodeo Association.

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I won several state, regional, and national awards from various press associations for writing and news coverage. I joined Western Writers of America as an active member in 1996. "Midget" was a WWA Spur Award nominee in the short fiction category in 2000. Another short story, "Jonas," was a 2002 Spur Award nominee. I have also been a member of the Texas Coalition of Writers and a reviewer for the All About Murder website. I became an active member of the Mystery Writers of America Southwest Chapter in 2004 since my novels, even though they're about rodeo, seem to be going in that direction. My novel, Texas Rodeo Murder, was published in 2004.

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I returned to college at the age of 38, with 42 hours left to complete my bachelor’s degree in English, after the South Texas Oil Slump wreaked havoc with the Texas economy. I stayed on to complete my master’s at the University of Texas in San Antonio.

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I have been teaching developmental writing and freshman English and humanities classes at Texas State Technical College in Waco, Texas, since the fall of 1999. In 2008, I was named Chair of the English Department at TSTC. I also teach writing and composition classes at Baylor University. Prior to that, I taught classes at several area community colleges.

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The year I returned to college, Texas adopted the TASP test for incoming freshman, which dictated that colleges do “something” with students who did not pass the test and show college readiness. At that time, I was the Undergraduate Advisor for Undeclared Majors and Provisionally Admitted Students in the Tomas Rivera Office of Retention. Eventually, we started to call these “provisionally-admitted” students developmental ed students.

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So, I have been in direct contact with developmental students since 1989. I have seen the changes in developmental testing, education, and vocabulary. When other students finished their master’s and went on to doctoral programs, I did not. I began teaching freshman composition and developmental writing classes. (Wow! I just realized that’s more than 25 years! I feel really OLD now LOL).

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In addition to presentations, seminars, and workshops on fiction writing, I also do presentations on developmental writing , especially regarding how short, one-hour refresher workshops can help dev ed writers move up or even out of developmental or remedial courses.

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To book fiction writing, motivational, or dev ed presentation, email me on my contact link above.

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