Rosie has it mostly right. I started selling newspapers at 8 and worked full time until 2018. Then I decide I wanted to not work for 60 years.

I grew up in Sicily and Cabrini Green, went to Saint Philip Benizi and Audubon Grade schools and Lane Tech High School, when it was all male.

I was an original Bleacher Bum in 1965 (Right Field, not Left); rock and roll drummer in the mid-60s; Marine in Vietnam in 1969-70, wounded three times and got malaria; have written three books of the Lombardo Family history (fourth in the works); and have been ecstatically married to Judy for 47 years.

I was an actor. director, designer and technician on stage; acted in about six movies; am a certified banquet chef; master's degree in Communications and Theater (Summa cum Laude). I taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1977-78. I did other things too, besides writing 23 books ranging from westerns to murder mysteries, even a fantasy about magic and spirits. Let me know what you want to focus on and I will try to prepare for those subjects.