SEVENTEEN STORIES...and more (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781516801664)

Rod has always lived on or near the water, beginning with his early years on the Weser river in Germany. From there, the family immigrated to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where Rod learned to love boats and to hunt and fish and dive. (He was the youngest SCUBA diver on the lake). Rod joined the marines and was introduced to the Pacific, serving in Okinawa and Camp Pendleton. He also visited Baja California, Mexico, a region he would fall in love with in the coming years. Following his service, Rod returned to Europe, living in Italy and Greece. Two years later he left for Australia, where he worked as a diver on a massive construction project at Northwest Cape, Western Australia. A year later, Rod crewed on a sailboat sailing clockwise around the top of Australia. Though he embraced the cruising life, he returned to the States to build a boat and to finish his education. There followed years of boatbuilding, cruising, and sailing, and Rod and his partner Barbara Cox settled in the San Juan Islands, Washington, where he consolidated his writing, some of which was published by Sail and Cruising World. He published Baja Dreaming in 2009; Seventeen Stories ... and more is his second book.