Roger Porter Denk

As Billy Joel commented in his mega hit, Piano Man, Paul is a Real Estate Novelist, of which I am neither. I am retired and I write as a hobby. I began writing when I enrolled in a Memoir Writing class led by published author and poet, Illia Thompson, in Carmel, California at the Carmel Foundation.

In 2006 a consulting job 100 miles to the north placed me in a hotel three nights a week, every week, with a lot of time on my hands. Notebook computer at the ready an idea formed in my head to write a novel about the experiences that my family and I had shared over the last four decades while living in Washington DC and spending part of each summer at the elbow of Cape Cod, in the little fishing village of Chatham Massachusetts.

My first novel, Stepping Stones, was born. Published in 2007, it is a fictional look at a small town's mysterious past and the lengths to which a coterie of characters will go to keep a secret.

Since then I have continued writing about Chatham with the same protagonist, Andy Reid, and his dealings with enemies, foreign and domestic. The second book, Skunk's Neck, was published in 2013, and the third chapter in 2014, titled Scatteree. Each title is the name of a Chatham street. Street-naming allowed me to write Sea Change in 2015. I guess I am in a rut.

I have also penned novels about other subjects: Las Vegas (The Reunion) and Cuba (Anadyr).

Plus, a memoir, Finding Myself, collated vignettes from my misspent youth and other events in my life.

Overtaken by events in 2016 and 2017 I decided to get on the Fake News bandwagon and write a novel called "Spammed," which should have been called "Faked." A new work in progress takes on the Leaks from Deep State.

I attended Penn State, and University of Marlyand, and then received a doctorate at Georgetown University. I was employed as an military and civilian intelligence professional with the federal government for thirty years. Most of my career was in Washington DC and overseas but the last ten years were spent as head of an organization in Monterey California, where I now live. Chatham is still our summer home.

Comments or questions are always welcomed--hope to hear from you soon. Please leave a comment here if you care to.