Rob Dinsmoor

I grew up in a university town called Bloomington, Indiana. It is a pleasant enough place, but I couldn't wait to get away from the small-town small-mindedness. I went to Dartmouth and then moved to New York, where I worked in publishing by day and wrote and performed with the comedy troupe Chucklehead by night.

Chucklehead gained some notoriety in the mid- to late-1980s but never really went anywhere. I moved to Massachusetts with my wife, but we split up. I was so saddened about the comedy writing I had left behind that I wrote a book called Tales of the Troupe. It was published in July. The troupe members are starting to hear about it, and everyone who has read it so far really liked it.

I wrote another collection called The Yoga Divas and Other Stories, about all the wonderful and whacked-out people I have met practicing and teaching yoga. I also co-authored a children's picture book with my friend Helen Kamins, called Does Dixie Like Me? It's about my gaining the trust of her rescued Border Collie Dixie and it includes excellent black-and-white drawings by Helen.

I just published a memoir called You Can Leave Anytime, about my three months in a drug and alcohol rehab facility in Florida. Meanwhile I am amassing other stories to publish yet another collection.