Don Wallace has written fiction and non-fiction, journalism, reviews and opinion pieces, an occasional poem, and even a song or two. He has published four books. His interests and subject matter often return to the same topics: interracial relations and social justice, sports, history (including naval and military history), adolescence, the ocean, Long Beach (Calif.), France and Hawaii, love and friendship. Comment: Reading was the first thing I was any good at, that and catching lizards in my neighborhood in Long Beach, California. Then writing burst upon me–suddenly, in fourth grade, like a wave. Since then I have always yielded to its slightly imperious demands on my time and attention, allowed it to sweep me away, trusted it to leave me something of value afterwards. Books: One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First Ever National Championship High School Football Game (non-fiction, Atria Books, 2003). This story of the Oct. 6, 2001 game between private Catholic Concord De La Salle and public inner-city Long Beach Poly has been called a tale of the American Dream vs. the American Reality, as well as a case study of the increased professionalization of youth sports. Now in paperback! (September, 2005.) A Tide in Time: The Log of Matthew Roving (serialized novel, Naval History, 2000-03). A ship’s log enhanced by string-theory quantum physics propels Matthew and his sister Abby into the American Revolution during the age of sail, where they must undo the machinations of Wydontia Gaway, a time-traveling agent of the Crown. Hot Water(novel, Soho Press, 1991). Coca-Cola bottler Gar Foote aims to be a hotshot professional bass fisherman, which wife Virginia Roy thinks is kid stuff: she intends to graduate from paintball games to being a soldier of fortune in Central America. A gender-bent rod and gun romance of the Late Reagan Era. * WaterSports Basics (Prentice-Hall, 1985). Clues for kids who want to get wet. Publications: Essays, op-eds, columns, reviews and articles in Harper’s. The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, MediaLifeMagazine.com, The Green Guide, Fast Company, Naval History, Islands, Wine Spectator, Diversion, Robb Report, others. Jobs: Currently Executive editor, Yachting. Former: California Escapes Official State Park Guide (editor in chief), Traveler’s Advantage (EIC), Golf Digest Woman (founding exec ed), Mark H. McCormack’s Success Secrets (exec ed), Kirkus Reviews (consultant & 20+ year reviewer), Self (senior editor/books), Success (senior ed), Motor Boating & Sailing (senior ed), and more. Started out as sports editor at Davis-Woodland Daily Democrat, circ. 12,000. Also: Instructor of fiction and creative non-fiction at The New School for Social Research and adjunct professor of journalism at the graduate publishing program, Pace University. More: Book publishing consultant to magazines and non-profit groups. Education: Longfellow Elementary. Hughes Junior High. Long Beach Polytechnic. University of California, Santa Cruz. University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Origins: Mother’s family from Memphis and Mississippi, father’s family from South Dakota and Minnesota; both sides met, emigrants to the Golden State, on the sands of Long Beach. Educated in public schools, raised Christian Scientist (lapsed at age eleven). Grew up right, at times far- right, Goldwater Republican, NRA member, with firearms training from the John Birch Society. Witnessed Watts Riots as Boy Scout at thirteen. Kicked out of Boy Scouts that fall for borrowing munitions from the Marine Base at Camp Pendleton during a Camp-O-Ree. Hiked the entire John Muir Trail. After a cross was burned on a black neighbor’s lawn, converted to the Civil Rights Movement. Started at parents’ high school, Long Beach Poly, located in the inner city. Ran track, played football, did the newspaper; survived two race riots, 11 police “detentions” (no arrests), having clothes stolen in gym a few times; first student member, Long Beach Poly Interracial Council. Still grateful for so many friends from all over LBC. Oske wow wow. The Voyage Out: Went to UC Santa Cruz, discovered Bly, Creely, Merwin, Williams, Pound, N.O. Brown, Jeffers and Snyder, Woolf, Faulkner, Melville, Hamsun, self. Wrote poetry, then prose, performed as “Donnie Apollo” with bands Honest Buck, Buck Eadie, Honest Ab and the Buckalonies (which may all have been the same band). Marched, gassed, beaten, jailed, tried, freed. Still grateful for so many friends. Go banana slugs? Went to Iowa Writers’ Workshop and wrote; met a writer from Hawaii and married: Mindy Eun Soo Pennybacker, environmentalist, fiction writer, Nation reviewer, surfer. Lived in Davis, France, Palo Alto, and then moved to New York in 1982. Son Rory born in 1986. Comment: If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve accepted the drummer’s offer to tour the San Francisco Bay Area singing cabaret standards in supper clubs (my hair was as long as Gregg Allman’s back then). Then I could be crooning in the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel today, introducing the world to my private repertory of songs by Al Kooper, Love, Lowell George & Little Feat, Todd Rundgren, Allen Toussaint, Van Dyke Parks and the Rev. Dennis David Kahekili-Mamao-I-Ka-Lanikeha Kamakahi. Yeah, and Outkast would ask me to lay down some freestyle raps on their next single.