"A polymath may be a person who knows a great deal about several fields of study, a person who has proficiency and competence in multiple fields, or even a person who has excelled in multiple fields."

I have always felt a drive to learn everything. Now, I'm driven to teach and to lead, as well as to learn.

In music, I could never study a single instrument to the exclusion of the delightful array of other instruments out there. I found myself wanting to learn them all, instead of simply becoming excellent on one instrument. I could have put the effort into the trumpet, my first instrument, but instead I spread my interest, and learned to play as many different brass instruments as I could. I also learned to play a little guitar from my father.

While doing this, I was learning the basics of electronics, how to write short stories, how to use a slide rule, inorganic chemistry, and surviving my peers' perception of me as downright weird. By high school, the only brass instrument I could not play was the trombone, I was building my own radio circuits and antennas, and carrying a 6" slide rule with me everywhere. I was a voracious reader, and never went anywhere without something to read.

Oh, my, was I a pink monkey in a cageful of brown monkeys! There's an old theory that if you take a regular brown monkey, dye it pink, then throw it back in its old cageful of brown monkeys, its original brown peers would tear it to bits for being "different". I know how that monkey might feel. Young people can be particularly cruel when the perceive one of their own is...not like them.

After college, I started the largest shared-universe science-fiction writers' organization, The Galactic League, in the Chicago area. Twenty years later, this organization is still going strong and creating new original science fiction writing, artwork, and costumes. During this period, the League was approached to run costume competitions at conventions. The resources not being available in the League, I started Galactic Stage Productions with the assistance of two other members, a theatrical stage company for running convention events, and later, for running conventions. I turned over Galactic Stage Productions to my partners in 1998 when I moved to Philadelphia to be with my partner Maggie.

Shortly after moving to Philly, I discovered that an old friend, Doug Krick, had founded the Pink Pistols, the largest and fastest-growing organization advocating self-defense of GLBT persons with lawful firearms. During the congratulatory phone call, Doug asked me if I was interested in starting a chapter in Philadelphia. A month later, the Delaware Valley chapter held its first shoot. It has been meeting every month, like clockwork, for six years. I have personally taught over sixty people to shoot for the first time. Two years after starting the Pink Pistols, Doug asked me to become the Media Spokesperson for the organization, in charge of dealing with the waves of reporters, tv commentators, and film producers that periodically washed over us. I enjoy speaking to the public, so I jumped at it. I have managed the Pink Pistols website, assisted new chapters in starting, and been quoted in newspapers, magazines, and websites worldwide. I have also been on radio, webcasts, television, and film repeatedly over the past 6 years. Interviews with me and with my chapter members have been translated into 60 languages and broadcast around the world.

I have begun private speaking engagements for those interested in the Pink Pistols and the concepts that gave rise to it. I am available as a coach, to assist anyone in communicating accurately and effectively about firearms, their usage, and the politics surrounding them.

My partner Maggie and I also enjoy Amateur radio, having started while still living in a second-floor apartment, and now we are both Extra-Class Radio Amateurs, talking to other operators all over the world, and even on the International Space Station.