Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 19:07:17 -0400
From: PPFB@aol.com
Subject: the tinkster... bio collector...

Bios, bio, bios.... sure you're not just collecting info for the Feds, Mike?

Well, I trust ya'.... foolishly perhaps, but they say my faith's
occasionally been misplaced... :-)

I sent this one to MJ back in July.... so it's older than your
month-old search, Tink, ol' man.  Enjoy.

I, Dustin S. Klein, being of questionably sound mind, declare this to
be true...:-) I'm 27 years old, live in Shaker Heights, Ohio (a
Cleveland suburb), and work for an international trade firm as its
Administrative Director (strange title, but basically, run North
American daily operations).  I also am a co-owner of a spin-off
business with my younger brother.  To say I have my busy days is an
understatement.  I have no set time schedule...  I end up working
parts of seven days a week, sometimes in the middle of the night.

I also get to travel quite a bit, which I love.  The Caribbean every
once in a while, Europe annually, Western U.S., Eastern U.S., Southern
U.S.... sorry, haven't seen the Pacific Northwest yet, but I'll be
there soon.  I expect to head to Asia and Russia sometime in 1997 or
98.  If Woofie's a good girl, maybe I'll try to fit that Aussieland
into my agenda in the next year or so...

I'm multi-lingual, which is kinda cool.  I've been learning Russian
for the past year for biz purposes (our partner's in Moscow)... which
I find a great fringe benefit of my company.  I also speak
conversational French, which I've found use for quite a bit in the
past two years.

I'm no handyman, but I've spent the last two years doing renovations,
remodeling and landscaping improvements in the house I grew up in.  My
brother and I will be buying it in March.  We're talking repainting,
wallpapering, floor sanding, rock gardens, planting trees, grape
vines, etc.... the entire enchalada.

While I didn't have to dodge bullets, like folks before me in 1970, I
got my degree from Kent State University in Journalism -- News
Writing.  I spent my last two years of college handling full course
loads and working 30 or so hours a week at the Akron Beacon Journal as
the Student Political Correspondent, a position the editor-in-chief
created for me on the recommendation of its former editor-in-chief,
who was my college advisor and thought I needed to be working at a
real paper instead of a student newspaper.  They interviewed me, saw
my student paper clips, made me take a couple tests, then gave me a
desk and a pile of notebooks.

The correspondent title was a bit misleading because I didn't cover
meetings in small towns.  Instead I eased the burden of the politics
reporter on some of his daily stories and did some data research of
political campaigns and the like.  I learned quite a bit about the
good ol' boys' networks from reading filing cabinets of local, state
and federal campaign finance returns and reports.  I'd probably be
working at that paper today if I had taken their job offer at the
beginning of my senior year of college instead of foolishing thinking
I wanted to go to law school instead.  The newspaper wanted me to sign
on then for when I graduated seven months later.

Unfortunately, my ambitious nature got the best of me, and I declined
because I intended to go to law school and become a corporate attorney
instead of a journalist... it was the writing that interested me about
journalism the most.

Well, because I spent so much time working, my grades were only
slightly above average (just under a 3.0), so even though I kicked
bootie on the law school boards, I got put on waiting lists for every
college I applied to.  And, when I thought I'd still be able to get
that job at the Beacon, they informed me that their owners had
installed a hiring freeze, which would extend through two years!!!!!!
They wanted to cut their staff by a couple people and didn't want to
lay anyone off.  What an industry, eh?

So, defeated and getting a late start on picking up a job, I was
picked up to be a business writer at the Medina County Gazette, a
little daily with a circ of around 20,000.  Promoted to Business
Editor after six months, I worked there for 2 1/2 years until I was
hired away to be Business Editor of a larger daily in Lorain, Ohio
(north coast).  That job sucked!  All they cared about was practicing
yellow journalism, which completely turned me off.  I jumped ship
after 11 months to work the other side of business at an international
trade firm, which I still work for.

I did get to do some cool things in the name of journalism for stories
while I was a reporter.  I've flown (both as co-pilot and passenger)
small airplanes.  I've gone out on day/night camping trips in the
wilds on horseback to do stories about old west-style businesses.
I've circled the skies like a buzzard in a state highway patrol plane
at the site of a dreaded speed trap.  I must warn you all...... it's
VERY accurate and you can see the vehicles CLEARLY from where the cops
are trying to nail you from.  YOU WILL LOSE IN COURT.

I also spent two months of my time (day and night) hanging out on
farms for a 20-story series on the demise of the family farm in
America.

I've sparked a U.S. Congressional Hearing of a subcommittee of the
Health and Human Services Committee on the issue of Breast Cancer in
the summer of 1994 through a series of articles on the issue.  The
local U.S. Rep got involved in it after the first couple stories got
some women to call his office about the issue (campaign year, of
course) and the stories just started flowing on every aspect of it,
funding of research, new research treatments, survivor stories,
education, etc.... next thing I knew, a Congressional hearing was
coming to town and the other papers in the area hopped on the cart.
It was pretty cool, I had U.S. Congressmen and their aides calling me
up at the newspaper.... now that I enjoyed.

As for writing, I've been doing it since I was a kid.  An active
imagination was fed through reading thousands and thousands of comic
books, detective novels, adventure stories, collections of poetry and
nearly all the classics. My mother told me I've been reading since I
was three and a half... (she's a teacher).  I started writing short
stories when I was a small tot, but more seriously since I was a
teenager.

I've been published, sort of, once, besides daily newspapers and
journals.  I was hired when I was 17 to write a chapter for a local
history book.  Other than that, I'm still waiting around to hear from
scores of magazine editors, where I've sent tons of short
stories.... still unpublished :(.  I also write poetry, which one of
these days I may send to some mags or journals as well.

I also have an unedited and unpublished novel that I wrote five years
ago as ghostwriter for some, uh, mobster fellows, who wanted a
fictionalized account of their history in Northeast Ohio.  And an
unedited sci-fi novella that one of these days I'll look back at.  I
also just finished the first novel that I'm pleased with, Caribbean
Chronicles.

This has totally gotten out of hand, so I'll wrap up quick-like... I
don't think this would be complete without including that I'm a total
sports fiend.  I'm one of those Indians fans that used to cheer 'em on
from behind the dugout when they were losin' 100 games a season and
had scrubs that my little league team coulda whupped.  I also hate Art
Modell with all my soul for stealing my football team... I hope he
never sees a Super Bowl...

I'm an outdoors fellow, love to hike outside, float on my lake at the
Farm on a rowboat and sigh at the beauty of nature, and play with my
Black Lab.

Peace,

Dustin