I was raised in Kentucky hill country in a metropolis of 400 tobacco and hog farmers, where I belonged to the only Jewish family in the universe.

In my dharma-bum youth, I hitchhiked and jumped trains across the Western States and Canada and went through jobs from pizza chef to surgical orderly, massage therapist to rock-show stagehand.

After getting a journalism degree, I wrote for a few Florida newspapers before becoming senior editor of Men’s Health magazine. My short stories have been published nationally and my debut novel, Ember From the Sun, was published in 10 foreign languages.

I hold a master’s degree in the Humanities (“With Highest Distinction”) and for seven years I taught World Religions at Florida State University, where I specialized in “subverting the dominant paradigm.”