I drink a lot of coffee, probably far too much for any one person to imbibe. I don’t know if this is a trend among newspaper reporters because I’m fairly new to the game, but it keeps me going. A little jumpy, but on top of things.

I’ve always been a writer, that is to say I’ve always written, ever since I was a little kid clacking away on my great aunt’s Royal Portable typewriter at her cabin in Vermont. That cabin, fondly referred to by our family as Frog City, was a place of myth and wonder, a setting where the animals talked and the trees and brook spoke a wisdom to a kid like me wandering the woods at the time, and still does.

After my great aunt passed away, I came into possession of the old Royal Portable along with another typewriter, a 60s model Smith Corolla. Since then, I have collected two others: another Smith Corolla and a brand new Olympia Traveller C (believe it or not, they still make manual typewriters), which I lugged around Europe on a month-long backpacking trip. I guess you can say I’m a bit of a fanatic.

I likewise am obsessed with books, especially old books because of the smell of the old pages. My bookcases are overstuffed with far too many books, many of which I know I’ll never read, but must have in my collection just in case.

In college, though I focused my studies on film and sociology, I spent the bulk of my time writing fiction, short stories, great American novel gibberish, which I continue to do. Occasionally, I perform in “spoken word” shows around the city of Portland where I live with my girlfriend Lyn and our cat Francis Xavier Herman Murray Mozart the III.

It wasn’t till earlier this year that I took the jump into the hectic world of a newspaper reporter. And though I have only been a full-fledged reporter for a short time, I am continually fascinated by the many facets of the Lakes Region. I see different sides to life in this job that I would never see otherwise. And having lived by the ocean most of life, I am beginning to realize now why people graviate toward the lakes: the calm for fishing, the boating in the summer, wading in the still water and the woods, the endless woods. More and more, I’m beginning to realize why the Sebago Lakes region has come to be known as the “heart of vacationland.”

As I continue to cover news in Windham, Casco, Naples and Sebago, I’m excited to learn more about what makes up life here in the Lakes Region.