Richard L. Tallman begun his career as an admission clerk at a mental hospital to become a highly regarded corporate executive in the field of behavioral health care for hospitals until his retirement. Thereafter, he made a life-changing decision of moving to South West Florida and found himself volunteering at an addiction treatment center. The idea of fiction writing took root during Richard’s solitary walks on the beach; as he listened to the sounds of nature; and to the fireside chats of people in treatment. Wearing the lens of a writer, poet and cartoonist, Richard drew from decades of trained observational skills to create fictitious characters with humor, curiosity and sensitivity that connects the reader to the most intimate part of oneself.