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.