I was born in Benton Harbor, in south-western Michigan, about ninety miles around the lake from Chicago. Benton Harbor was a town of small industries. Between us was St. Joseph, which had beaches. One of these was Silver Beach, a small but full-featured amusement park. We went there a couple times every summer.

I was the archetypal sickly child, small and thin, falling ill six or eight times a year. When I was a junior in high school, I missed so much that I was told to start again next year. That was not my intention, I was going to be a writer. But my parents found Southern Arizona School, at that time in the desert north-east of Tucson, from which I graduated after two years. The influence of the school stays with me, as you can see by the clothes I wear.

Somehow I got into Pomona College, in Claremont, California, which I got through without distinction (not even the bottom of my class), and graduated in 1967. I returned to Michigan, got a job, and discovered that while there were plenty of pretty girls, there were no book stores. What was I going to do with a girlfriend who didn’t read?

In January of 1968 I bought a one-way train ticket to Claremont, struggled with diminishing savings until I finally got a job as an Assistant Bibliographer in the Honnold Library for the Claremont Colleges. In 1971 I met Diane Easterling, and we were married in 1972. We moved to Chapel Hill, NC, so she could study for a PhD in Mathematical Statistics, while I started my career as a full-time writer. In 1984 we moved to Durham, and in 1986 my daughter, Julia Darcy Wold was born, and I became a full time father.

I write as much as I can, but I’m still the head of household management, while Diane brings home the paycheck. She supports me in every way.