Despite having Japanese babytalk as my first language and going to many formative school years at Taipei American School, I am mostly a product of the American-style education system and body of literature.
Before I finally found a school that got rid of me with a diploma rather than some hysterical kicking-out ritual (University of Washington) I attended Wake Forest, Baylor, U. of San Francisco, San Fran State and several Army training programs. I leaned much more in the Army, prison and street warfare, however.
But all you really need from school is learning to read, and that opened the door to much wider worlds.
I then embarked on decades of writing for newspapers, magazines, mail order catalogs, poetry collections, guidebooks, comedy routines, bands, what have you. I wrote for the cream of the West Coast "hip urban weeklies" such as the Seattle Sun, Rocket, Stranger, and Weekly; San Diego Reader, Revolt, City Beat and Weekender; Bay Area Guardian and Express; Rocky Mountain News, and so on.
And national magazines such as Penthouse, Young Athlete, American Photographer, Hustler, Harpers, Science, and anybody in that payment bracket.
In recent years I also wrote for publications in Mexico, including Spanish cultural and investigative mags as well as English papers in Los Cabos, Vallarta, Cancun, Tijuana and Mazatlan. This is experience produced a living, awards for journalism and literature, and the formation of deep distrust for the editorial community that survives to this day.
I subscribed to the traditional writer's grab bag of odd jobs such as: jail guard, psychometrist, cave guide, mail order marketing hotshot, poetry publisher, smuggler, photographer, webmaster and low-key street crime.
I have also become a screenwriter, with several contest wins and a TV series currently "in development". Currently I am publishing my fiction works on the spot market while angling for the Big Shot in movies, television, and NYT Best Sellers list.
Let me know how it comes out."