Working Hard

Authors Note : Many of my editors felt like pages would have been wasted and people would be uninterested in the monotonous list of jobs I had before I became a writer. I could agree to some extent so I have decided to include that chapter online.

I will admit I started at a very young age. I was 13 when I started smoking cigarettes and within a few years I wanted to do and try everything that could give me that addicting blissfully mind-numbing high. I mostly took drugs from my mother while she was asleep or from one of her “friends” coat pockets but it was barely enough and soon I wanted to purchase my own drugs. So, when I was 15 I got my first job to help pay for my newly acquired habits and I haven’t really stopped working since.

During my youth I had a bunch of pointless jobs from the graveyard shift at a local convenience store to Lancaster County Tourism Greeter. When I was 18 I made a few thousand dollars running a few marathons and when I was 21 I had a job as a teacher assistant that in retrospect I realize I didn’t really hate.

My first salaried job came when I was 21 a few months after I had dropped out of college. Ironically enough it was at a small publishing company where I did data entry which was by the way just the most menial job in the world and I spent half the time writing e-mails to my new bride. To help supplement our newly acquired independence I also did a few side jobs modeling and was lucky enough to do some modeling for Tommy Hilfiger. I will say that thanks to that job I never had to buy clothes for the next 10 years. However all my jobs were unstable and although I had also gotten Her Eyes published but, it hadn’t done well and I actually ended up owing more money than I had earned. I was feeling like a failure at life at this point I felt like I wasn’t supporting my growing family so, I made the decision to attempt to become a police officer.

At this time we were on an extended stay in Colorado which was good because, my wife could be with her family while I was away at training. It was extremely hard for me to get in to the Police Academy with my terrible academic and juvenile record and job qualifications. I had to do things I had never done before in my life like actually studying hard. I knew that I couldn’t just pass I had to prove that I was just as capable as anyone else. It paid off for me because I passed the entrance exam without a single wrong answer. While I was in training it was very hard on my family and strained my relationship with my wife. I hated being away from her but, she hated coming to the Police Academy.

After I finished my training I ended up back in Oaklande working. My job was decent I was getting paid and I still had time to tinker with the sequel to Her Eyes if for no other reason so, I could remember retreat to my world of happiness after dealing with the broken justice system the town had at the time.

When my wife and I decided to do the typical American thing and head west I never expected to find work. II knew it would be hard to join the LAPD so, when I applied it was only a formality while I off looking at local jobs but, I guess somehow my decent recommendation from Sergeant. Prego (we called him Sergeant Saucy) and knowledge of drugs they accepted me on their force. While the LAPD has it’s reputation joining the LAPD was kind of a turning point for me socially. I wasn’t in my circle of Oaklande, PA and I was creating friendships with people who I worked with, something I had never been able to do before.

One of the first people I met was Sean Cooper who worked at the front desk of the precinct. If his last name sounds familiar it is because he is the son of the then police chief Stanley Cooper. He was able to start a conversation with anyone and it not be awkward or annoying. His job wasn’t the most exciting but everyday he seemed to have a good spirit and was always smiling. He also knew everyone and everything that was going on and that came in handy when I was getting to know my fellow officers. He was also brave enough to lie to my wife and tell her I was out whenever we were having a fight. Sean still works at the police precinct and while I don’t talk to him like I used to, when I need a little under the radar help he is always there.

After 2 years at the LAPD I took the detectives exam and was fortunate enough to join the detectives bureau. Once again it wasn’t easy and to this dayI know more about California State Law than most people care to know. It was during the time that I was a detective that I met my partner Alicia Kim. I was at first very turned off by the idea of working with a partner ( I still have a hard time working with new people, actually) but we went through a lot together. Working with child abuse cases and juveniles we saw some of the worst things you could ever imagine. I had seen some terrible things at group homes when I adopted my children but some of these things don’t compare. Seeing some of the horrors we could do to each other even made me thankful for my childhood. Just the horrors that people and even the system can inflict on children who are supposed to be the innocence in our society it’s what motivated me. It was these experiences that helped me write Condemned because, although it is fictional I would like to think a fictional voice could speak up for all the real ones that had been silenced. The things that I have witnessed have also been a huge reason why I started and help so many charities for children. Sharing these experiences strengthened the relationship between me and Kim beyond our job.

After I got hurt during a police operation that took me away from my family I was given the option to either sit behind a computer or go on disability. I choose to sit behind a computer and work computer crimes, away from my partner. This is the place where I earned the lesser known nickname penn_guy53. However after I finished Condemned I decided to take the disability and started writing at home. By this time Alicia had moved to San Francisco and we talked and hung out occasionally. Actually, she has something to do with why I have a tattoo on my neck.

Getting Condemned published took a long time and I was sitting at home most of the time much to my wife’s chagrin. I was getting better and I decided in order to get away from home to take a more low key job at a gym and then subsequently at a bar. On a chance I took a job writing a column for the then new LA Magazine. It was supposed to be a onetime thing but, then it ended up becoming a syndicated column and also served as a place where I could get on my soapbox about the importance of protecting and helping children.

The rest from there is history. Working at LA magazine helped me get my writing published with what is now Cobalt and in the last few years I’ve been able to make money off my books. Writing my books has allowed me to do things I never thought possible ,it is kind of a perfect ending (or beginning) for me.

Many people say the reason I am so successful with others is because my life is like the American Dream. I started of working at a convenience store dealing with kids trying to illegally buy cigarettes to the point where I am know where can sit for hours in my very own office and write what I know or at least hope will be appreciated and read by other people. I can also force my employees to write e-mails in blue font if I want to.

***To learn more about my time with Saucy, Sean ,Alicia LA-Magazine Editor-In-Chief Preston and other people I have worked with please pick up my Autobiography when it comes out. ***