About
Before becoming a full-time author, ghostwriter, editor, and writing coach, I had two parallel careers. One was in the courtroom as a business litigation and trial attorney where I delighted in the art of legal writing and advocacy storytelling for clients. The other was in the gymnasium as a basketball coach, primarily at the high school level, coaching both girls and boys in public and private schools. I relished teaching the game and the enduring lessons inherent in value-based sports competition.
My life-long passion for reading, the written word, and storytelling drove me into the literary world several years ago. Since then, I have authored, co-authored, ghostwrote, edited, and coached in multiple genre: memoir (true crime, business, spiritual quest, personal, military, and life-coaching and motivational); sports (basketball and high school athletics); web content; blogs; and fiction.
I have many favorite idioms and expressions, but the one that anchors me is from the late legendary coach John Wooden: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” The quest is perpetually invigorating.
I grew up in the streets of the Bronx, in its Mott Haven and Highbridge neighborhoods, where I can comfortably claim, I “made my bones.” Later, I served in the military from 1968-1970, taught in a Manhattan art and music program for preschool children after graduating from the City University of New York, and moved to San Francisco to attend law school (graduating from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law). I play guitar, hold a black belt in karate, and am an avid hiker, workout junkie, and pickleball player.
I live in Marin County, California and have two adult sons, both of whom teach grade school and coach high school basketball.
Featured Work
Play It Forward: From Gymboree to the Yoga Mat and Beyond
Play It Forward is a candid, poignant and inspirational entrepreneurial journey that chronicles the building of Gymboree from humble beginnings to a global brand. It is also the story of Gymboree’s founder Joan Barnes, who succumbed to an immobilizing eating disorder, and her amazing return with a second successful entrepreneurial venture —the establishment of the YogaStudios chain that merged with national chain Yoga Works. The book is replete with business takeaways and role model lessons, and it gives the reader a close look at what it takes to arrive, against all odds, as a Wall Street public company success. In so doing, it challenges the popular notion of what it means to “have it all.”