Critics say you have a cult-like following.   To what do you attribute this?
The Detroit Free Press started the "cult" reference in an article written about me in the 1990's and  the label stuck (I was writing comedic TV commercials then).  I have a good size core of regular listeners/readers and for that I'm grateful.  As for attributing it to anything: I don't know but it's nice to write or (talk about) something and know that somewhere someone else is enjoying it. 

Why do you write?
I enjoy it a great deal and possess an active imagination desperately needing an ongoing readily accessible outlet.  

When was your website created?
My domain was registered in '99 but I've been writing online since 1992.  GTE gave everyone a whopping 10 MB of space when you signed up for dial-up service and I started my first website then (essays and audio stories).

Your comics are rather simplistic.  It that intentional?
I've never had any formal training with regards to illustration.  I'm the first to admit that I'm a lousy cartoonist but I prefer my stories with illustrations.     

Have you actually done any of the things you write about?
Yes. 

Like what? 
Once I donated a lamp putting it alongside a Salvation Army drop box and there was an attractive woman there (at the drop box) who was also donating something and before I knew it we were making love on a used up mattress that someone else had donated.  The best part was we found an old transistor radio that worked (another donation).  It was romantic.  We had the stars above, free music and the bed was pretty good too. 

Really?
No.

You do your Podcasts from your closet?
Yes.  I think it sounds better.  It's seven foot by three foot.  Behind me (in the closet) is the electric blanket my father was using when he died and in front of me is the thick black dress my mother wore to my fathers wake.  These things really help with the acoustics.  I've got an electric candle in there with me and I burn incense too (gets me in the mood).   

What things do you read?
I love to check out books from the local library.  The thinner the better with bigger than usual text printed on white not yellow paper.  Regrettably I pick books by their snazzy covers then reading about the author afterward skimming through about a dozen or so pages before I almost always return them overdue.

Have you got a book publisher?
No major publisher yet but I'm confident it will eventually happen.  I figure I'll live to 75 maybe 80 which gives me a good amount of time to succeed.  Maybe my future publisher is only 16 years old right now but at 27 this person is the head of a large publishing house and my biggest fan. That means I'll be in all the bookstores in 11 years (unless this person changes careers at age 26 in which case my debut could be delayed).

You've appeared in television commercials?
Plays and dozens of TV commercials.  In Detroit I was writing comedic television commercials for a big corporation and in a lot of the spots they used me as the talent.

You were accepted into the prestigious Powerhouse theatre program at Vassar College?
That was in 1999.  For a short time I stayed in Josselyn Hall.

How come you're in Florida?
My stepfather was ill and living in Florida and he phoned and asked if I would come down and help him while he worked to get better.  I was living in Detroit at the time.

How's he doing?
He's dead. 

You had a stepfather?
A great stepfather.
 
What about your biological father?
Dead.  I met him once years ago.  I was sitting in a room with him and while I was talking to him he kinda tilted his head to one side and that's when I realized I was blocking his view of the TV.  He was watching the Golden Girls. 

I once read an article about you and it mentioned something about you getting dumped by your mother.  Is it okay to ask you about this?
When I was very young my mother drove to a Grant's department store in Detroit and told me to get out and when I did she just drove away.  Maybe 30 minutes later she came back.  Years later she explained to me how overwhelmed she was at the time what with raising children with no husband and all (at that time).  My mother was hoping some government service would  take care of me and assign me to a good family.  Today, if ever we're arguing with one another I'll jokingly say, "But I'm not the woman who abandoned her only son like a f-cking bag of garbage." 

Where can I buy a t-shirt or Frisbee or even a plastic cup with your name on it?
How 'bout custom embroidered short sleeve Dickies? 

Have you ever worked as a reporter?
Two of my favorites were The Herald and the Panex Advisor.  My editor at the Advisor was exceptional possessing a unique prospective and wonderful sense of humor. Today she is a nationally acclaimed  press spokeswoman for General Motors in New York City.  In retrospect, the Advisor's newsroom had it all:  a Vietnam vet photographer overflowing with war stories; a yellow haired, hot tempered, chain smoking hard news reporter who'd always ask me: "What the hell are you looking at?," a glamour queen reporter desperately seeking the limelight and soft spoken nature loving woman named, Les.  It was great fun and a tremendous learning experience. 

What goes through your mind as you work and exactly how do you work?
I work in the morning typing directly into the computer making revisions as I write then coming back to the piece the next day reworking it all over again then re-reading it about 20 more times after it's finished then maybe re-working it one last time before I re-write the whole damn thing.  I was never any good at writing longhand on yellow legal pads or anything romantic like that.  As for what goes through my mind:  to be able to finish the piece with the same initial enthusiasm and interest I had when I first started it. 

What is your favorite type of writing?
I'm different and I write the way I think and it comes out as humor.  I like humor.      

Some writers plot out their stuff from beginning to end. You?
I never know the beginning or end of anything I write.  After a couple of sentences my characters kinda develop on their own.   

Pulitzer Prize winning author Norman Mailer once wrote you?
Yes.  It was regarding an internship opportunity with him but also contained some good advice.   

You attended FSU? (Ferris State University)
I did.  Ward Hall room 407.   It's a great university located in the hilly town of rural Big Rapids, Michigan (USA). It was initially hard for me.  Following schedules, studying and all that.  It's tough for me to direct my attention on any one thing.  I was always more interested in what was going on around me (The perfume coming from the chick sitting on my right, shoes, hairstyles, how people held pens and pencils,  watching people walking past the window and of course the clock on the wall).  Eventually, I became one of the editors of FSU's newspaper (The Torch), won a university prize for a mailbox invention and got a very rare on camera at home interview with internationally renowned author Russell Kirk, author of The Conservative Mind.

You were terminated from your job as Editor?
They had this heavy drinking Irishman leading the Journalism program.  He had this really big weathered nose and the veins running throughout it were swollen and purple and highly visible.  I sent a fake press release to a small newspaper and when they printed it and he found out about it he canned me.  Later on I found out he didn't have the authority to do that.  

And you were kicked out of your dorm?
At that time conduct on campus was handled by issuing what they called Long and Short forms.  You got a Short form for one type of infraction and a Long form for yet another type of infraction.  I had amassed about a dozen or more infractions and (at the close of my freshman year) was sent to the office of the legendary Dr. Peterson (FSU's onetime Disciplinary Officer).  He was a scary, red faced, ex-military man with a handlebar mustache and he smiled a lot which made you think he was your pal.  Ten days before my sophomore year was to begin I got a letter telling me that I couldn't live in Ward Hall anymore.  I think he hoped I wouldn't be able to find housing that close to the start of the new school year and that I'd simply drop out of the university entirely.

Did you find housing?
Boy did I.

Did you graduate?
In my sophomore year I became friends with a first-rate professor and author (Thomas Brownell) who was also a Dartmouth graduate.  He taught me how I could rein myself in a little and still be me and thanks to him my remaining years at Ferris were relatively uneventful.

You published while at FSU?
I self published around 5000 copies of Leonard at FSU in my freshman year (My mother helped me put the books together during Christmas break).   The piece dealt with abandonment, dating, fear and loneliness.