David A. Crossman

I was born and raised; that much I can attest to by the fact that I exist. Beyond that, everything is hearsay, and I must take on faith. I am told I was born on an island off the coast of Maine, upon which my family had a long and interesting history. This is agreeable, so I accept it. In any event, my earliest memories are of island life with friends whose parents, like mine, exercised a fairly laissez-faire attitude toward child-rearing, their Prime Directive being "I want you out of the house, and don't come back until you're called for supper!" This was a very libertarian approach in that we were, to an extent, responsible for the development of our character and the sole beneficiaries of its consequences.

Wittingly or not, I exercise pretty much the same principles with the characters in my books. I set the stage, lay out the plot - more or less - assign the parts and let them have at it. As a responsible parent, I have to reign them in every now and then when they threaten to deviate from the script so far that they lose the plot altogether, but generally let them have their head and see what kind of people they turn out to be. It's a Godlike perspective, I suppose, and one in which I take great pleasure.

As for myself - this being my biography - I have had a very long, very interesting career, met many wonderful, intriguing people, lived around the world - which is a kaleidoscopic and ovoid place - and made a deep study of history, theosophy, psychology, and humanity. I hope these experiences inform my work, both light-hearted and serious, and make it wonderful, intriguing, and kaleidoscopic if not necessarily ovoid.

I possess a bottomless chest of treasures, these being the deep and abiding friendships Providence has showered on the path of my life, together with my wonderful wife, children, and grandchildren. These season the years with both challenge and joy.