My first novel was just published. Set in the fictional city of Zenith (where Sinclair Lewis set "Babbitt), it tells the story of a dying Midwestern industrialized city, and the people who live in and around it.

You can learn more by visiting my website, www.zenithrising.webs.com

Here's a brief description: The city of Zenith is dying from the inside out. The suburbs continue to grow, expanding at an ever faster rate. Narrows Burton is a real estate developer about to put the finishing touches on a deal that will make his name, and his fortune. On the way to success, however, he has made some very powerful enemies who set in motion a plot to ensure his project will never get off the ground. Before that happens, though, Burton accepts a challenge to get off the freeway and take a look at the city of Zenith as it really exists. What he discovers is a stunning panorama of seething poverty.

"This is America?" Burton asks himself. "Is this the land of the free and the home of the brave? Or is this where the American Dream goes to die?"

Unable to shake this chilling vision from his mind, Burton turns his back on the life of wealth and prestige and throws himself into a project to rebuild the city, one house, and one life at a time. Zenith Rising traces Burton’s journey from real estate developer to community organizer.

Zenith Rising can be considered the first novel of the Obama era as on one level it is a tale of hope and rebirth, and of building prosperity from the bottom up.