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Steve Elder has been drifting south for most of his adult life, he figures. Born in Niles, Michigan, and schooled in north Germany and Columbus, Ohio, he got his first post-graduate job at the University of Maryland as an assistant professor, specializing in German history and philology.

Although he loved teaching, university academia proved too far removed from real-world life for Elder. Having worked as a summer carpenter throughout college and graduate school, he became a full-time carpenter/cabinet-maker in the mid-seventies, specializing in commercial work. His well-crafted interiors can still be enjoyed in some of the national capital area’s finest restaurants and public buildings.

Elder married writer/editor Hilda Maness in 1982, and the couple moved to a 200-year-old log house in western Loudoun County, Virginia. In 1984 Elder changed careers again to become a home inspector. By the nineties they decided to escape the burgeoning Washington commuter traffic by followed the Blue Ridge south. They lived in Roanoke, Virginia, where Elder wrote a weekly home repair column for the Roanoke Times, then moved on down south, settling at last in Chatham County, North Carolina, where they live on five acres in the woods near the Haw River.

In addition to articles in trade journals, Elder has published several poems and song lyrics. Frank is his first novel. Several more are in the works, he says.

Visit Stephen’s website at http://www.stephenelder.com/, email Stephen at stephenelder@mindspring.com