Like
James Cagney, I'm a real Yankee Doodle Dandy, born in Kingsport,
Tennessee on the Fourth of July. Every year since, I've enjoyed the
fireworks displays all over the United States that take place on my
birthday. As the picture shows, my major pursuit in life, other than
adding letters after my name, including B.S., M.S. and Ph.D., seems
to be the ongoing quest for the always elusive "just-right"
classic car which currently is the restoration of a 1966 Jaguar
E-Type coupe, but in the past has ranged from a 1941 Cadillac to a
1961 Ferrari. Over the years, I've worked at a great variety of jobs
ranging from bus boy to university professor at Emory University's
Oxford College, Southern Arkansas University and James Madison
University. I've also worked as a motel clerk, exploration geologist,
photographer, door-to-door salesman, newspaper columnist, land
surveyor, civil engineer, truck driver and meteorologist. My
writings, including science articles, adventure articles, car
articles and short fiction, have appeared in such varied formats as
professional science journals, newspapers, literary journals and
history journals. I've completed two other novels, Last Lion of
Sparta and Blood
Scourge, both to be available
later this year. Certainly my greatest accomplishment,
however, was marrying Elizabeth Hill in 1971. We live in the South
Carolina foothills of the southern Appalachian Mountains have three
sons, Gene D. III, an attorney in the Washington DC area, John Peter,
Director of Marketing at a chain of retirements homes in Virginia and
William B., an information technology specialist on active duty in
the U.S. Navy.