I grew up near Pennsylvania Amish country and began writing while living in San Francisco.

Odd bits of information, like historical footnotes, often turn into stories.

A museum exhibit sparked "Mud," in Terra! Tara! Terror. WWI was mechanized slaughter, a "modern" war with tanks and planes, but also cavalry charges! Imperial War Museum photos show soldiers with dogs and cats, which killed rats in the trenches, and boosted the men's morale. Dogs were trained to carry messages, lay communications wire, and haul machine guns. Animals were decorated. My grandfather told stories about the horses and mules used in WWI.

Genealogy prompted "My Jack" in Flame Tree's Urban Crime. My great- and great-great-grandmothers emigrated from London, England in 1886.

Recently read: Salt, by Mark Kurlansky, the saga of that common substance; Heretics: The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy, a graphic novel by Steven and Ben Nadler. The Library Book by Susan Orlean, and lots by Jody Picoult!

I taught at San Lorenzo Middle School in King City, California for thirty-six years before retiring in June of 2006. Phyllis, my wife of 43 years, and I still reside in King City. We have two sons – Jeremy and Jon.

I am a life-long rock-climber and mountaineer. I've made numerous ascents in the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite, though my home crags are in Pinnacles National Monument. Three of my short stories about climbing were published in the Sierra Club's Ascent. I converted a story named "Three's a Crowd" into a radio play and it was broadcast on KUSF on November 22nd, 2006.

Five of my books have been published: Joel in Tananar, Flower Tumbles, The Dragon and the Lemon Tree, Chaos Gate and Dawn Drums. Dawn Drums awarded both the New Mexico Book Awards 2014 Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction and the Arizona Authors Association 2014 First Place Award for published fiction.

My writing has won a number of other awards. "Dogwood Dream" won first place in New Millennium Writing's 2011 short fiction contest. My novella "Vienna Station" won the 2011 Galaxy prize and was published as an e-book. It is available for Kindle here on Amazon. My short story "Lulu Garlic, Contraband" was broadcast on KVPR, an NPR affiliate. Here’s the link: http://kvpr.org/post/lulu-garlic-contraband-robert-walton-valley-writers-read

Last year, my "Sockdologizer" was awarded first place in the 2020 Saturday Writers Everything Children's contest.

Please do contact me via my blog if you have questions about my writing!