In 1961 I graduated from Boston University with two degrees in Theater Arts which, of course, were essentially useless for a married man with a wife and one child to support. I took the first job I could get, as a technical editor for a large aerospace company involved in building components for spacecraft. It was interesting work at first, but after 3 years I got bored and was looking for something else. Across the hall from the Publishing Department was the Advertising Department. I noticed that those guys (all guys) were dressed well, were paid more, and having more fun.
I decided to go into advertising and became an advertising copywriter in a small agency in Boston. Several years later found me as a Creative Director in a somewhat larger agency and making more money, enjoying the work, but unhappy with the acidic environment.
Luckily, as it turned out, I fell on a patch of ice, broke my leg in three places, and spent a year in various casts, working at home by telephone and messenger (no internet in those days). My wife said, you didn’t like working in an office, so why not quit the agency and go freelance?
So, I did.
For about 45 years. Did well, took lots of vacations, had good clients and varied my advertising assignments by editing and ghostwriting other people’s books (which, at 81, I still do). I’ve had a great life. Five children, eight grandchildren, and my wife (a teacher and education consultant) and I have travelled all over the world. Literally, from the Arctic to Antarctica, from Boston around the world one way, and then the other. All continents, and some of the most fascinating places and cultures on earth.
So how did I get to write this silly little children’s book If It’s Funny for a Bunny? Don’t know, really. For about 2 years, I just kept a file of rhyming words and phrases that kept turning around in my brain, thinking that someday, if I sat down and thought about it hard enough, I could pull it together, which one day I did. I dedicated it to my youngest grandchild, who bears a remarkable resemblance to the boy in the book.