Let me share some secrets with you.

I’m not much of a farmer, although my first book focused on urban farming. In fact, while the Census Bureau may consider my home “urban,” you’d probably consider it suburban. Yet here we are.

I have an enduring respect for farmers urban, rural, or otherwise. Farming is often backbreaking, thankless work, but it gives us our food, of which I’m rather a fan. 

Another thing I admire—again, more from afar—is resilience, both in individuals and communities.

Take Greensburg, Kansas. A monster tornado swept away a century of growth in a matter of minutes. So utter was the destruction that insurers couldn’t even identify where insured properties had been. (Kind of puts the terror of the blank page in perspective.) My second book, Green Town USA, recounts the brave and visionary efforts to rebuild Greensburg from scratch as the greenest town in America.

I also have a soft spot for nonprofit organizations doing good things—like saving wildlife and wild places, helping out homeless families, or defending the Constitution—and have spent most of my career working for them. When I’m not doing that or spending time with my family, I write. Some fiction, some nonfiction. Mostly short.

So yes, I’m a bleeding heart suburban cream puff. But a bleeding heart suburban cream puff who writes.