Biography

I’m Rodger, raised for much of my most formative years by a single mom. My sister and I never realized we were struggling as my mother committed herself to service in the Red Cross, rather than use her nursing degree. During that period, I also experienced the trauma of domestic abuse. My mom had terrible judgment about the men in her life. It taught me what not to be. 

After the early death of my mother, we moved back with my father who was very busy climbing the corporate ladder. My extended family made it a point to get me outdoors and that began a lifelong passion for outdoor adventure. I’m a bit of a recluse and I am never happier than when sitting on a rock and watching a river run; especially a wilderness river. That passion landed me in Alaska.

Before that, I worked my way through college, joining what the Navy called AVROC, or Aviation Reserve Officer Corps along the way. It was a way to engage in what would become another passion, aviation. When my Navy career was cut short by the loss of my aviation medical status, I thought that the world had come to an end. I was wrong; all losing my dream career flying jets did was launch me in a new direction, including some idea of what I didn’t want.

Among the learning experiences, was a short stint in law school. I was never so bored. It wasn’t law school itself, but my ‘attack life’ nature just wasn’t a good fit. So, I took a leave and moved to Alaska where I became the project manager for the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline project for a major corporation. That career evolved into several companies that I founded and grew until someone made me an offer I couldn’t turn down. My business career took me all over the world, including several stints in Russia prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and up until Putin came to power and undid most of what so many of us were working towards. Along the way I married, had two great kids and divorced. Now happily remarried, my current wife and my ex are all part of an extended family that I have worked hard to keep together. Somehow it all worked and that extended family now includes grandkids.

I was looking for something more than a work career and kept on looking until I finally surrendered to a passion I’d suppressed since college, WRITING. A political scientist, by education, with additional studies in economics and public address, I have always been involved in politics. I love to find snippets of history that just don’t add up, where something or some plan promoted by the powerful went all to hell and then was covered up. I take these incidents and research in depth before writing a thriller that I believe might just tell a more accurate picture of what really happened than the academic history does.

I’m a proud American with a real sense that part of my job is to influence and help make as many improvements as I can. I abhor the current mindset that tries to rewrite history. I’m not the first to say it, but I believe history is not to be liked or disliked; it is there to learn from and some of our most damaging moments and beliefs can teach us the most. One great joy of writing is that you can explore America’s history and society and present ideas that make us better. If I do that with a story that brings enjoyment, gets the pages turning, and maybe moves the needle, I’m elated. If that reader is you, it’s very nice to meet you.