I have been passionate about Asia from an early age when my father, a Marine officer, told me stories about war-torn China. My passion grew deeper because of my own experiences in Vietnam where I spent a year in the jungle fighting the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese Army, and malaria.

After returning from the war, I obtained a master’s degree in Asian studies; learned to speak, read and write Chinese; established numerous businesses in Asia; and became an international lawyer. I advised businesses on their global operations and strategies, lectured at local universities on Asian culture and business law, traveled frequently to Asia, participated in seminars in Vietnam and China for business and government leaders, and taught graduate students at the University of San Diego (UCSD) and San Diego State University.

Thirty years in the making, The Stillness Series came about for many reasons, but the four most important involve a Vietnamese woman giving birth in the mud during a monsoon, a dead North Vietnamese soldier with a copy of Rousseau’s Confessions in his rucksack, Homer’s Iliad, and the trauma of schizophrenia.

I currently live with my wife in a secluded rural town veiled by the forests of Northern California, writing and teaching young students the values of analytical thinking and intellectual exploration.