Peter Van Ness was born in the spring of 1955 to idealistic, big-city parents of English, French, and Dutch descent who had recently moved to rural New York state where his father held the post of pastor in a farming village.
During his childhood, the family would add two younger brothers and move five more times--to cities, suburbs, and small towns from New York to Geneva, Switzerland.
Peter's parents encouraged creative pursuits. He sang in choirs; learned piano, guitar, and drums; played in bands; starred in high school plays; and acted with the New Day Repertory Company.
In 1972, while still in high school, Peter got the chance to program computers connected to the ARPANET. He left home upon graduation, embarking on a couple of adventurous decades practicing mysticism, studying French haute cuisine, and working as a chef and a musician until the world of technology lured him into co-founding a software company that made his investors rich.
In 1998, he and his wife, Vickie, started a small web development, promotion, and marketing business. Music won them back in 2007 when they founded gimmeLIVE, which grew to become the Boston area's premier independent, family-owned concert promotion and production company, presenting Grammy-winning artists and Rock Hall-of-Famers [more here].
Over the past 50 years, Peter has written newspaper columns, songs, poems, plays, blogs, speeches, advertising copy, marketing collateral, website content, presentation materials, software documentation, technical reports, business plans, sponsorship decks, non-profit grants, and millions of lines of code.
The Faithful is his debut novel. A sequel is in the works.