I was born the son of a sugar plantation overseer in Bunkie, Louisiana; lived in the Black community setting of the plantation in a time when they were still the established economic institution of the rural Deep South, and I attended all white schools. My childhood was unique, close to people of a different race and culture, but always, I was troubled about segregation and racism. An earlier novel, a fictionalized memoir, "The Last Witness From a Dirt Road," (2005)a narrative, was a vehicle exploring race relations in the 1940s and 50s written through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy, and now, "A Full-Grown Man," (fiction) explores the social mores of the 1960s and 70s. Both novels are set in rural Louisiana. I finished college at University of Louisiana - Lafayette, married Grace and have reared four children. We live in the Tennessee Valley of North Alabama.