Grant M. Handgis

I grew up as an Air Force brat, before it was fashionable. That was at the front of the baby-boom curve, with one foot rooted in the Victorian traditions inculcated in childhood, and that foot remained undeveloped, while the other invested great effort at realizing ever new and exciting possibilities learned from the many locations and cultures that were visited along the way. All of which adds luster in implausible ways in shaping the author's interesting sense of humor.

My first publication came at age of thirteen, when one of my anecdotes was published in Boy's Life, 1961. How I didn't swell up with that I can't say. Sometime later, after a tour of duty in the military, including some exciting moments in various jungles for free, I stumbled into adult life, so to speak. Somehow, I married and had three children, followed not long afterwards with a divorce, of sorts, and a life as a single parent, which, along with some tawdry stories of parenthood, makes rather rich material for satirical memoirs. A number of my poems have been published in literary magazines and anthologies.

I currently have fifteen books in print, including three books of poetry, a fully illustrated children's book, my mother's historical memoir, a traveler's guide into Mexico, a satirical memoir, book on War & PTSD, and five photo books in a series, on black & white film photography, and alternative photographic processes. And of course a fairly excellent tale of philosophical adventure and realizations, culminating in a rather rich realization, in "Marinating in Dream Sauce". The stuff of humorous memoirs are made of. My latest book, "Gallery of Hope", is a satirical novel, with the theme on black and white photography, and the brave souls who remain defiantly traditional to it. The satirical theme is all about human behavior and the foibles that come with it, which, historically, becomes fodder for wicked tales, and the best gossip. This story might be about black and white photography, but entails the fuller history of Ewebark, Oregun, and those who arrived with ideas of their own, and how that developed into the place it is today.