Marvin J. Wolf

I began my career in the media as a U.S. Army combat photographer in Vietnam. Assigned to a public information section, I soon saw that writing skills were important to my photo work. In Vietnam I had the great good fortune to meet and become friends with some of the world's greatest reporters and photographers, including Nobel laureate author John Steinbeck, Peter Arnett, Horst Faas, and many others. These men and women were generous with their time and wisdom and helped put me on the path to becoming a writer.

After my Army service and a succession of media jobs, I became a full time free lance writer-photographer in 1978. Magazine articles led to books; in 2001 I made a ten-year detour into writing for the screen. I was then 60 years old; in the view of the movie industry's gate-keepers, screenwriting is a young person's game. So, I made a little money and learned a great deal about story structure and dialog. My first novel, "The Tattooed Rabbi", was published in 2011. The second book in the Rabbi Ben Mystery series will soon be published, and I'm working on the third.

Writing has not made me rich, but I have met many famous people, as well as some not famous but wonderful to know.

While I have come to regard myself as a writer, I never abandoned photography, which has remained a lifelong passion. And I am still friends with many of the men that I covered the war with.