At Cal State LA, I minored in literature, worked on the literary magazine and developed a yearning to write. Throughout the years I would begin but never finish anything until reaching the age of eighty-seven, realizing then I might have to retire from consulting and writing could keep me going before check out time. That was seven years ago, I am still consulting and have written about a dozen short stories, some poetry, essays and stuff I call sketches.Born in 1927 in Santa Ana I was named after my grandfather Edmund French. At the time he was undersheriff of Orange County with a pioneering legacy of helping to develop Huntington Beach. California landscape, climate and history have gone deeply into my sense of being and offered fertile ground for storytelling. I witnessed when small rural towns were becoming urbanized, when industry replaced agriculture, and streetcar tracks gave way to freeways.