Joe Neubarth

I was born of my father's third marriage in 1948. In 1951 we moved to the South Seas to live in American Samoa where my father had taken a job as Chief of Dentistry for the South Pacific. In 1953 my mother decided to become another of Dad's ex-wives and she moved back to Chicago where we lived with my Grandfather, Dr.Joseph Hubbell in the bohemian rich area of Hyde Park. My neighbor was the Science Fiction writer Fritz Leiber. As a seven and eight year old I used to go over to his house to watch him write. The thought of being able to sit at a typewriter and make up stories fascinated me.

In 1958 at the age of ten, I went to live with my father and his fourth wife, the royal Volike of the eastern Samoan Islands. (Her oldest son can claim to be king. Technically, I am her oldest son by my father's marriage to her.) We moved deep into Mexico, into the state of Colima on a coconut and banana plantation right next to the Pacific Ocean where I went body surfing every day. We lived there for a year and a half and then moved to Escondido, California where I graduated from high school in 1967 during the height of the Viet Nam War. Before I graduated, I enlisted in the Navy. That, of course, continued what had already been a heck of a lot of world travel. I graduated from Naval Nuclear Power School in 1969 and was twice in the Viet Nam War and twice in Europe before leaving the Navy to start College.

I graduated from San Diego State in 1977, ten years after I graduated from Escondido High School. I reentered the Navy as a Naval Officer and served six more years before leaving to take a management job with Pacific Bell (Now AT&T). I worked there for 17 years, and during that time, my wife, Diane, and I raised 30 children. Hers, Mine, Ours, Adopted, Waifs that showed up on our doorstep, and some Foster Children. One of the waifs I raised I caught breaking into my house. He was homeless, so I gave him a place to stay for a year and managed to get him into the Job Corp program. I consider raising children to be my real life's work. I worked jobs just for the money to pay the bills in raising the children. I was a full time involved father, Coaching and co-coaching youth teams, refereeing games, and just being present for important events in their lives. Along the way, I used to make up and tell the kids stories that taught lessons. When some of the kids reached their thirties they asked me to write up at least one of the stories as a book so they could pass it along to their children.

I did as they asked, had it printed, and passed it around to friends, family and neighbors. I actually sold a few copies for a few dollars each. About a year later, I found that my paperback book In The Beginning was selling for $95.00 used. I was not getting that money, but used book sellers were.

Later I was contacted by Amazon to see if I wanted to convert my "popular paperback" to an E-book on the site they owned called MobiPocket. I did that over five years ago and it has been a leading seller on MobiPocket ever since.

I do not consider myself to be a writer, just a story teller. I have seen enough of the world to have many stories to tell.