I taught high school and college English for several centuries, but plotted my escape through most of it. I now teach online and write offline.
My stories, poems, essays and articles have been widely published. I write about what I find interesting or hopeful in articles and sometimes essays, but not so much in novels. Flux published two of my young adult novels, and I suppose they are both at least a bit hopeful... I am currently working on a new young adult and shopping a middle grade around. In between, I write essays and sometimes editors pay me for them.
In my first book length non-fiction, I am completing a series of essays exploring the theme of addiction and how we are pretty much clueless as to how to treat it. It's personal and sometimes excruciating to articulate, so it's been slow-going, but it's been going which is always a plus.
I live between Staten Island, and the Jersey shore with frequent stops in New Paltz (Meaning I travel between them, not that there is one specific house mid-way) I like the city and the beach and books. That sounds like there's only one, so I will edit in a long-winded way and tell you I mean not only my own cities, beaches, or books, but pretty much all of them.