About Zach

After leaving college I became a VISTA volunteer and a representative for Model Cities in Uptown, Chicago. I also co-founded a school for high school dropouts called the People’s School. Eventually I moved to Boston and worked at Project Place, a social service workers’ collective. When I left Project Place, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health hired me to train their staff in advanced counseling, after which I continued as a private counselor for 15 years for individuals, couples, and groups, before deciding to write fiction.

The first three books in the Matt Jacob series, Still Among the Living, Two Way Toll, and No Saving Grace were published in the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. No Saving Grace was also published in Germany.

Unfortunately, I left writing in disillusionment due to serious censorship issues with my publisher. But after around 15 years and a revolution in technology, I’m back.

Polis Books has now released eBook versions of the first three Matt Jacob novels and will release my latest Matt Jacob, TIES THAT BLIND, as both a trade paperback and eBook in March, 2015. The first three are available from from sites such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobles and iBooks. (Please see the “Matt Jacob eBooks” tab for more details). Ties that Blind will also be sold at independent bookstores.

During my writing hiatus, I stayed pretty creative learning to read music and play the saxophone. I called on my past work experience to team up with several national law firms as a trial and jury consultant, taking cases of people injured or killed while working for major corporations. I also worked with a local Bar Advocate, who represented the poor and disenfranchised in criminal cases.

That work was meaningful and enjoyable, but the return to writing feels terrific. I’m looking forward to my new Matt Jacob novel,TIES THAT BLIND. Of course I think the story is interesting and suspenseful, but it also deals with the time difference, the changes in Matt Jacob’s life, his crew, and our modern culture. The idea makes me smile.

I live in Boston with my wife Susan E. Goodman, a children’s book author, and have two great sons (ages 44 and 30), a wonderful daughter-in-law and two newly born twin grandchildren.