BOCA INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY

Who am I? I am just your average guy who likes to paint and write books. I was born in Harrogate in Yorkshire, England on November 18th, 1944 and if my mother had had her way, I would have been a boy named Sue as Johnny Cash used to sing about.  Had it not been for her girlfriend who had come over to help her through the pregnancy while my father was back in Canada, I was Lesley Susan right up until the night before I was born.

I spent the first ten years of my working life in the retail jewellery business in sales and store management in Montreal, Calgary and Saskatoon. After ten years I left my job with the company and returned to university in Montreal. After finishing a year of  university, I got married to an English girl, almost freshly off the boat, so to speak. We lasted a dozen years together and she is the mother of my two children. 

I got into computer work next having once said to myself that I could sell anything but computers and life insurance. I then moved on to the business of bank and credit card marketing, a job I loved when it was busy. I was on the team of 25 that launched Chargex, the predecessor of the Scotiabank Visa card. I was next involved in the selection of the new logo and colours of the corporate image, one that has stood to this day. When the bank cut budgets and had us sitting around looking for things to do, I was able to look beyond its walls. I took a job as Assistant to the Executive Director of the Association of Kinsmen Clubs and with it became the National Magazine editor for three years. From there I moved on to life insurance sales with Sun Life and proved to myself I could do that job too. I next went to work in the food industry as a sales manager, food broker, spice trader and essential oil representative. The business lasted for ten years after which the owner sold it off from under us all after having a couple of strokes. Two years later we were all gone and I moved on to the company that made Colonel Saunder's spice mix for its KFC products. A year later, without sufficient support, I started up my own business on promises that did not materialize and that was my last attempt to make the food industry work for me. For the next 20 years I did whatever I could to survive as my life slowly went downhill. I became a baker, a driver, a mover and I ran an ice cream and coffee shop. At times I had to go on welfare and hope I could make it through the month.

It was during one of these times that I wrote my first book which I titled VISIONQUEST.  I went back to university in 1991 hoping to find a new vocation in teaching. Largely it was to acquire new skills and learn to live on student loans through the bad recession that we were in at the time. During that period I completed a second degree in business, a degree in Film and Fine Arts and a teaching degree at a third university during the day. I loved the process of learning and with more modern understanding of learning disabilities, a new way to deal with the subject along with tools to get the job done.

When I left university in 1997 I realized I could not teach because I could not hear the students voices anymore. My hearing was going. I got into venture finance next as Vice President of a Vancouver firm and moved on to work for an offshore bank for a very short period. That all went belly up when the Vancouver Stock Exchange folded into the Toronto Exchange. I started a book business at one point selling childrens books but that too ended up going nowhere after my working partner and I went in different directions.

It was about thwn that I began to have arthritus problems, had my knee scoped and later both hip joints replaced. Now after years of immobility I am starting to get around more and the body seems to be working better except for the weight problem.  The key is that I am totally happy with what I do with my life.  I have finally got to my own place in this world and I am going to stay here and enjoy it. It's not over until its over.