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Biography of R.A. Cox:
A Texan By Trade...R.A. Cox was born in Amarillo, Texas in 1969. Being an early member of the then unnamed "Generation X", he found that by the time he reached high school all the good psychedelic drugs had fallen out of favor, replaced by vitriolic warnings to "Just Say No!". With that firmly in mind, R.A. turned his adolescent attention to athletics and beer. Beer, after all, was the one substance he could apparently say "yes" to and not be branded a total freakoid in the small Texas Panhandle town of Canyon, where he grew up. R.A. was an avid reader from a very young age, voraciously devouring the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, David Eddings, Stephen King, and Larry McMurtry among others. But it wasn't until his sophomore year of high school that R.A. really realized he had a special aptitude for that which he loved so dearly (and no, I'm not talking about beer making). It began one day in English class with a creative writing project. The teacher allowed the class two days to complete a short story about any subject. While the others struggled and scratched their heads in frustration, R.A. finished his five page story in less than thirty minutes. Everyone in the class was astonished. "How did you do that?" and, "Did you know your fly was open?" were the questions asked as he walked boldly to the front of the class to turn in his work. R.A. just shrugged, he honestly had no idea how he did, or that his fly was open. Beaming with pride, he turned his story over to the teacher and strutted back to his desk without even zipping himself up. Inspired by R.A.'s speed and creative prowess, his teacher graded the paper on the spot, and in less than one third the time it took R.A. to write his masterpiece, it was returned to him with the letter "F" stamped in large red print on the first page. R.A. shook his head in disbelief, "punctuation?" he mused at the notes his teacher had written below his grade, "Grammar, I thought this was supposed to be creative writing?" R.A., however, was vindicated one year later when he won the district writing competition with a dreary adolescent short story, and received a whopping two hundred dollar scholarship towards his college education. Armed with two hundred dollars and a battered Underwood typewriter (okay, it was a Commador 64 computer) R.A. ventured South to Lubbock and Texas Tech University. R.A.'s football career had somehow not quite worked out, but while college athletics might have been out of his realm, he could still chug a beer with the best of them. For four basically unproductive years, R.A. managed to skate his way through college, until at last he finally used up his entire nest egg of two hundred dollars. Oh there were a few productive things R.A. managed to accomplish during his college career, one was writing columns for the monthly newsletter of the Texas Tech Range and Wildlife Club. He also wrote a great deal of lovesick puppy puke poetry in between keggers, but even he would hardly qualify that as productive. In 1992 R.A., and his new wife Roper, moved to Southern New Mexico to manage a large cattle ranch in the Gila National Forest. This was a cathartic period in his life. With the beautiful inspiration of the Land of Enchantment buzzing in his head, he attempted his first novel, "Diamond Tina". He failed miserably, setting the manuscript aside after hammering out only two hundred and fifty pages. Still, too stupid to be deterred, R.A. began yet another novel, "The Cattlelands". In 1995, during the writing of "The Cattlelands", R.A. underwent a turbulent move back to Amarillo, Texas, a vicious change of jobs, and a bad case of real life. So passed "The Cattlelands", relegated to a floppy disk by life's interruptions. In 1997 R.A.'s first son Rhoan was born. At Rhoan's birth R.A. looked down with wild red-rimmed eyes at his bloody, screaming son, then over at his sweat soaked, bawling wife, and he had an epiphany (or at least severe nausea) he would write a thriller. So, armed with the knowledge only post traumatic stress syndrome can bring, R.A. began outlining "Skin Changer". In 1998 his second son Rowdy was born, and R.A.'s inspiration/nausea was renewed. And at long last, in 1999, shortly after Christmas, R.A. finished his first novel length work, "Skin Changer" Today R.A. is writing like that sophomore in high school again, only now he has spell check. He is currently hard at work on several projects, and is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association and President of the Panhandle Professional Writers Association, all while maintaining a career as a full time Bank Vice President, and a part time Rancher. Oh sure, he's given up any dreams of playing for the Dallas Cowboys, though he still watches them with morbid fascination. He even had to give up on his other favorite hobby, drinking beer; what with the two hundred dollars from his scholarship long gone. His only real hobby now is chasing his two sons around, and being constantly amazed that they can survive all those spills that would land a man of thirty-five years in the intensive care unit. Maybe it's true what they say after all, God protects fools and children, or was that Texans and children? All Graphics, Images, Files, and Text on this web site are the sole property of R.A. Cox, no representations are allowed without the expressed written consent of R.A. Cox Copyright © 2004, R.A Cox, All Rights Reserved
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