Rod was born and raised in Tampa, Florida and was attracted to words at an early age. He wrote his first book "The Boy Who Liked To Read" (about himself) with construction paper and pencil in the grade school on his own ? wasn't a class assignment. His teacher then decided to keep the masterpiece and show other students in class what they could do if they "applied" themselves.
Later in life, Rod discovered comic books and was determined to work for Stan Lee once he was old enough. As a student in school he was taken to reading, writing and drawing and by high-school had completed several comic books of his own creation. It was his English teacher in high school that pulled him aside and told him "You should delve into short story writing, give the comic books a rest." He listened.
Rod got into writing prose and fiction, but only as a part-time hobby, wasn't till his later adult years that he started to take it seriously, having written a middle-grade fiction adventure titled "The Juniors" (it was a challenge from his son) that was picked up by a publisher. He quickly decided that he wanted to do this for the rest of his life.