William Van Ornum

When I was eight years old I began my first writing adventure. I founded the Cal Koonce Fan Club, for the eponymous Chicago Cubs pitcher. I wore the hats of writer, editor, and publisher, the latter being accomplished via a hectgraph machine. This was a contraption upon which was fastened a sheet of gelatin, and by typing a backwards ink stencil and placing it upon the gelatin one could print off fifty or so copies, usually in purple ink. Later in life I covered the Hall of Fame induction of Ron Santo, Cubs third basemen, for National Review Online.  My writing life has grown

I am a retired university professor and clinical psychologist. I have been featured in New York Times Sunday Magazine. My academic work has been reviewed in Journal of the American Medical Assocation (JAMA). Stories have appeared in National Review Online, America Magazine, Aletia, and New York Daily News. I am the author/coauthor/editor of 30 books–25 of these comprised the Continuum Counseling Series. My five trade books have included as topics: crisis counseling with children, talking to children about nuclear war, the counseling sourcebook, obsessive compulsive disorder and scrupulosoity, and a short biography of Eugene Kennedy. I have co-written a large textbook on psychlogical assessment for Pearson. High profile interviewees have included Sergei Khruschev, Judith Durham of the Seekers, John Cardinal O’Connor, Theodore Hesburgh, and NYS Governor David Patterson.

I contributed to a content marketing campaign by the American Mental Health Foundation, writing blogs for general information purposes and to attract major donors.

When I’m not writing, I am the chief cook and bottle washer for my son, an adult with Down syndrome. He likes writing, too.