E komo mai

On  a hot, sticky, Orlando late summer September day in 1951, S.K. (Steve)  Wilkins,  made his grand entrance into this world to the cheering of the  masses. Okay, maybe not the masses but his father, older sister, aunts,  uncles, cousins and grandparents were excited about his arrival, and  it's a given his mother was ecstatic this pregnancy was over.

All  through his primary and secondary school years, his teachers would  write on his report card, "daydreams too much." Sitting in class he'd  stare out the windows wishing he was somewhere other than a boring  classroom listening to his history teacher expound on the French Revolution, or the Teapot Dome Scandal (insert yawn here). He wanted to  be out playing with his friends, at the beach, up in the sky flying an airplane, surfing, paddling his  canoe down a spring run looking for gators and bears, riding his bicycle all over Winter Park, water skiing, or exploring the  orange groves, woods and swamps near his home. He wanted to be doing  something other than sitting in a classroom...he wanted to be outside  exploring. 

Steve's  an intelligent person and learned a lot from school, but he learned  more by doing. He has a vivid imagination and insatiable curiosity of life, how things work, and has a passion for experiencing new and different things. It was during his first year in junior high, he watched popular bands on TV, was fascinated by what he saw, taught himself to play the guitar and started a band.

And his interest were wide spread. During that time, he  built a ski boat and hydroplane, took up surfing and flying...not model planes, real ones. During his first year of high school, he rebuilt his first  car...an Austin Healey Sprite, and it didn't stop there. During his senior year, he received his private pilot certification

Steve  is a free spirit, and is not  into the normal working 9 to 5 at the same job for years on end. 

He went  to college, mostly part time and got a degree in business  administration. He tried the corporate management thing  for a few years and hated every moment of it, that's when he decided to  follow his dream. He had a lifetime of experience in photography he  learned from his father starting at a very young age, and also learned more about the subject while taking graphic arts classes in high school, so in his late 20's, he went back to college and received a  degree in photography and it was during that time, he realized photojournalism was his forte . His passion was to get behind the scenes and see how  things worked and experience what life is all about. His travels didn't  take him all over the world, but as a photojournalist, he's been able to spend time in the  Caribbean, Cuba, all over the North American continent including Alaska, and also Hawaii.

In the past, Steve was never a  writer as it were. He never wrote for any newspapers or publications and  hardly wrote letters. Let me correct that, he never wrote letters. He  preferred phone calls and wasn't one to sit down with a book unless it  was something by his favorite authors; Mark Twain, Carl Hiaasen, Jimmy  Buffett, Hemingway, John MacDonald, as well as others. 

He first started his writings when his mother, fully aware of his life and travels...to a point, urged him to write his memoirs. After many years of procrastination not knowing where to start, while living in a motor home overlooking the Indian River Lagoon in Sebastian, Florida, and after talking and becoming friends with an established writer at the pub next to the RV Park, he became inspired to start writing his memoirs...which eventually turned into four, later five books. After that project ended, he so enjoyed writing, he decided on a fictional series featuring his main Character, Steve Logan. 

Mark Twain is credited with saying, "write about what you know", so that's what he does.