A third-generation Floridian (his grandfather started the first law firm in Ft. Lauderdale), the 40-year-old Miami Herald columnist is at heart a serious man deeply angered by what developers, greedy politicians and overpopulation have done to his state. Of his childhood in Plantation, a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale, he says, “At the time I grew up, it was the westernmost fringe of civilization in south Florida, literally on the edge of the Everglades. Now, of course, it’s unrecognizable…But I still have a tremendous affection for the place.” His fiction “keeps me from going completely around the bend,” he says. “I can write my own endings, and for once the bad guys get what they deserve.” His cutting satire is “the only defense I’ve got.” It’s also a mighty effective weapon. “Most politicians fear this sort of humor much more than someone getting up on a soapbox and screaming at ’em,” he says. “They don’t like to be mocked and lampooned. So, naturally, my intent is to mock and lampoon as much as possible.”
