For the last twenty-five years of so I've lived in the Oregon madrone woods about three miles from the nearest town. Most of the time I write and illustrate nature books for kids (and adults who like lots of pictures and clear explanations like I do!). When I can find the time, I go exploring -- to the beach, the mountains, to the jungle and beach in Costa Rica and New Zealand with my friend, Dan, and into the woods to visit a hawk nest or down to the creek to watch for dippers (little gray birds that walk under water)right here around home .Writing and illustrating has been a lifetime project for me. I started when I was 19, with my first book, AMERICA'S HORSES AND PONIES, published five years later, in 1969, by Houghton Mifflin.I wrote and illustrated a lot more books for HM, Scribners, and several other publishers, won some awards, and illustrated articles for Audubon, Ranger Rick Nature Magazine and others. For several years I was the Scientific Illustrator at the National Fish & Wildlife Forensics Lab in Ashland, Oregon, doing graphics, illustrating papers, and making courtroom displays for such things as the Exxon Valdez (oil spill) trial and others. It was great to be able to help wildlife hands-on.Now I'm back to writing and illustrating my own books full time, painting and inking art for Forest Service and nature center interpretive signs, and teaching scientific illustration at Southern Oregon University. In 1999 I published the first in a series of books about the wild places of America -- The Redrock Canyon Explorer -- which featured the wild canyons of the Southwest. Writing and illustrating it took me about three years. It's carried in state and national parks and monuments, bookstores and trading posts of the Southwest -- Arches, Zion, Montezuma Castle, and Glen Canyon Visitor Center, to name a few. Now I'm more than halfway through the second volume of the series. This one's on Southeastern cypress swamps, and I think I'll call it The Southern Swamp Explorer. Between the two Explorer books (above) I got sidetracked writing Illustrating Nature ~ Right-brain Art in a Left-brain World to use in teaching my nature illustration students. That drawing book was a whole new direction for me, with marketing in areas I've never tackled before -- and the results have been astonishing.... Last spring I went with my bud Dan to New Zealand for a month. I spent the rest of the year writing up my notes and journal and sketches into an e-book. It's available as a .pdf, and is full of sketches and photos. It was a blast, and I love it, but it hasn't been a great seller. Of course, I'm not such a great promoter, either. I love my work. My days are kept interesting by alternating writing and illustrating, watching wildlife out my studio windows, reading, teaching illustration classes and workshops (and all that entails!), working on my clipart collection, watching nature programs on PBS, promoting and distributing my books, filling book orders, and dreaming up ways to take more trips like the one to New Zealand. My next scheme is launching a career in teaching nature sketching workshops on natural history cruise ships. Now that's a dream job to end all dream jobs. I think. And maybe I'll actually find out for sure. In the meantime, I'll keep drawing swamp critters and playing with the cat. Life is good.