I am the author of the Joshua Oates Adventure Series. Growing up I have always been a student of history. In college, I became a history major and an avid reader. My favorite authors include historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin, and popular fiction writers like Robert B. Parker, and Clive Cussler. I also pursued a professional cartooning career for a time and was able to have a good number of my cartoons and illustrations published in trade magazines and books. A collection of some of my cartoons appears in the paperback form under the title "Cartoon Madness". My interest in historical figures led me to write my first novel, "Vengeance of the Ripper" published by Lulu Press. My book pits Jack the Ripper against the old west legend, Wyatt Earp. The action takes place in Los Angeles, California in the year 1908, twenty years after his murderous rampage in London. One of the characters in that book is a young police captain named Joshua Oates, I  published my second novel titled "Target of Fear". Former police captain Joshua Oates became a private investigator in 1919. A sequel to "Vengeance of the Ripper" it stands on its own as a thriller packed with action and romance. "A Darker Shade of Greed" is set a year after the events in "Target of Fear" as hard-drinking private eye Joshua Oates has to find a missing tailor before the mob finds him first. "The Killer's Code" finds Oates back in 1920 Los Angeles to find a missing child that could be his own. My latest entry in the series is "Murder By The Numbers" a thriller that challenges Oates to the brink of death.