What I do for a living:

Write marketing copy, books, articles, liner notes—you name it.

What I do for fun:

Kayak, sail, scuba, bike, run, read, write, play guitar and mandolin, study Northwest Coast Indian art, and raise pygmy goats and hell.

Favorite toy:

Favorite books:

•  Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast by Hilary Stewart

•  Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

•  The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan

•  Next of Kin: What Chimpanzees Have Taught Me About Who We Are by Roger Fouts

•  The World Don't Owe Me Nothing by David "Honeyboy" Edwards

•  The Eyes of Chief Seattle by the Suquamish Museum staff

•  Watertrail: The Hidden Path Through Puget Sound by Joel Rogers

Last kayak trip:

Neah Bay and the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula. A buddy and I paddled around Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point of this state.

Favorite songs:

•  Ramblin' Man by Hank Williams

•  Tears of Rage by Bob Dylan, Richard Manuel

•  Mingus Eyes by Richard Thompson

•  The Devil's Right Hand by Steve Earle

•  Too Many Others to Mention by too many others to mention

Recent scuba dive:

Point White dock on the southwest side of Bainbridge Island.

Other pix:

My niece,
Leslie Forst
 

My little buddy,
Ryan Schimack

Hoffman brothers

Brother Tom and I

I've written:

The first biography of Howlin' Wolf, famous bluesman of Chicago and the Mississippi Delta. He started his career playing with Charley Patton and Robert Johnson, and ended it playing with Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. For most of his life, he was the main musical rival of Muddy Waters. He's the link between the first Mississippi bluesman and grunge.

Howlin' Who?

Click to read about the Wolf.