Well, thanks for making it this far into the site. Here’s a little more about me and why I write.
I’m originally from New York state, just north of “the city” and was lucky enough to go see Broadway shows when I was in high school. While I’m from New York and it formed much of who I am, it’s a place I feel I’m from. I’ve since lived in many other parts of the country.
I spent 2 years in Buffalo, NY during the mid 1980s getting a geology Master’s degree; it’s why Alex hails from the City of No Illusions. Like so many who lock the music of a certain era into their minds, the New Wave tunes I listened to then – predominately from CFNY, a very cool radio station from Toronto whose signal carried across Lake Ontario – has stuck with me. It’s the pop culture of that era that informs the world I’ve chosen to populate in my mystery fiction.
After graduate school I worked in ocean-going scientific research in New York, Rhode Island and Hawaii, traveling around the world. I’m still a traveler and love a good long drive that takes me to someplace new. I firmly believe in the adage that travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer. I also love staring at a rock outcrop and noodling about what the earth has laid out, contemplating the deep time that geology makes you ponder. I find the perspective humbling and satisfying. I write about that on my travel blog at huakaiandi.com.
I spent the majority of my working career as a project manager in environmental consulting and IT, as well as several stints being my own boss as an independent consultant. I retired in 2021 after Covid made me rethink my life priorities. I’ve lived all over the country from the New Hampshire to Hawaii, from North Carolina to California and currently call Northern California home. I’ve been married twice and have a wonderful daughter; she is the best thing I’ve helped make in this lifetime and I’m thrilled to be friends with her.
I’ve had a good, fortunate life this time around. I continue to enjoy it and hope you enjoy what I chose to write and share with the world.
Why I Write
This will likely become it’s own page at some point, but in short, I write because I enjoy telling stories. I’ve always been a person who converses or imparts information with some tale. I’ve always been that way.
I also have a very noisy brain. It’s always going on about something and while I learned to quell it when I’m focused on things like my spiritual life, it can be very talkative. I was also a writer early on, writing articles in my high school newspaper and I’ve written a annual holiday letter to friends; no, not the short kind either 🙂
I’ve also been somewhat creative in my life. I’ve always been a singer, dabbled in amateur theater for awhile and finally got around to picking up a ukelele in 2020 which helped me through that dark year. However, for years I had a block about “the artist’s way”; the daily process that works the creative muscles until you’re happy with the shape they’re in.
That changed in 2008 when I sat down and punched out a first draft of a novel in 3 months. I returned to it in 2024 when my life took a depressing turn. As I came out of that depression, I found writing to be a balm and a comfort. It opens the soul to exploration and illuminates new possibilities. It now feels weird if I’m not writing something every day.
I hope you find the tales I weave during this creative process worth reading.
erichalter.com 