I was born on Christmas Eve evening 1950, in a three room 2nd floor corner apartment above a butcher shop in South Philly. There was a blizzard and my mother couldn’t get to the hospital (my father was with the Navy in Korea), so I was delivered by the butcher’s wife, my grandmother, aunt and 2-year old sister in attendance.
Early in life we moved to the suburbs where I barely escaped a life as a juvenile delinquent. Writing and radio and music were my saviors. In 1968 my first poem to be published, “The Twelfth Day of Never,” appeared in the national anthology Encounter. Other poems appeared in Generations and Patterns. During the Vietnam War I served in the Army as a tank recovery/repair/driver specialist (1970-’72).
In 1973 I realized a life-long desire as I began a thirty plus-year career as a D.J. on the radio, as Billy James. I also did extensive club/disco work and helped write the book on beat mixing. My job has carried me from South Jersey, to Philadelphia, to Houston, to Seattle, back to Houston and finally to Greenville, South Carolina, then Charleston, South Carolina, my final stop before retiring.
My interests include my record collection, radio memorabilia and my collection of antique and muscle cars.
Throughout I have written: poetry, essays, articles and short stories. My work has appeared in radio and car trade publications. Presently I am working on my memoirs of a career on the air and a collection of short stories.
My greatest influences have been Ray Bradbury, Stephen King and of course the “classics,” including Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Steinbeck. My greatest influence and biggest fan was my mother, Rose Neblett, a movie, TV and print actress who passed away in October of 2004.
I hope to find a publisher for my work including my memoirs and other stories I have in the works.
I am a Christian and count the Holy Spirit as my muse and ghost writer.
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