My journey as a writer began when, Stanford degree in hand, I worked for a broad array of clients as a business consultant, writing manuals for such exciting topics as restaurant management or setting up an “open to buy” system for a chain of retail stores or revising a chart of accounts to support one of those then new computerized accounting systems being sold by IBM, DEC, HP and others. Over the years I expanded into writing advertising copy, scripting TV commercials, crafting political speeches, and then copy for internet sites, another brand-new form of communication. Along the way, I segued into journalism, writing regular columns for trade publications and then my own small rag, The GB Journal, a blog for insurance brokers and risk managers worldwide. At the same time, I worked as a corporate executive in several insurance firms, primarily in systems design.

A little over twenty years ago, I began trying my hand on writing fiction—short stories, screenplays, stage plays, and novels. I took writing courses, worked with a number of editors, rewriting and polishing a series of books in different genres. I didn’t push to get them published because I knew I could still improve them and I wasn’t ready to commit to being an author full time. That’s changed now with the publication of my first western, The Winter of Wolves (Penguin/RandomHouse, 2021), and my retirement from my position as SVP of Analytics at Gallagher-Bassett. My new novel, The Last Train to Perdition, like my first western, is based on the real family stories I heard as a small boy from the people in the books. I grew up in a family of story-tellers where the past was never really over and done with. The history of the great American West happened right at the dinner table while I watched and listened. When I was old enough, I learned to shoot my great-grandfather’s trapdoor Springfield rifle, the one he carried as a superintendent of a bridge and building gang for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in the 1890s, the same one I write about in The Last Train to Perdition.

These stories have a reality for me, right down to the smell of gunpowder, cattle, and sweat, which I hope carries over for my readers. The western novel is an amazing genre. It tells the stories of so many people but most of all, it tells the story of how Brits and Bohunks, Scots and Prussians together forged a nation never seen before. This book is the story of how one Swede kid played his part in the enormous drama of the American West.