About Clay

I work in county government in northern California. I was an award-winning newspaper reporter in small-town Mississippi. I am also a raconteur, news junkie, world traveler and husband, and I pride myself on my non-linear life path.

I have earned a living as a chef, shoe salesman, private investigator and U.S. Navy sailor, and I spent seven years deep in California state government, traveling in the wake of a high-profile governor. I have prepared food for people with 10-figure net worths, and they gave me compliments for it.

I lived during chunks of 2013 and 2014 in a small village in southern France working on writing projects and clearing my head. If you’re anywhere between Paris and Madrid, gentle reader, I urge you to get yourself to Fitou for a visit. Tell them at the bar tabac the American writer sent you. If you do not speak French they won’t understand you. They will, however, shrug in a charmingly cavalier manner.

I adore Chablis Premier Cru and loathe split infinitives.

Because this page is about me, I allow every paragraph except this one to begin with “I.”