Fiction and nonfiction writer who rose to fame for publishing works on UFO's, spirituality, and true crime. In 1996, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National UFO and Unexplained Phenomena Conference.
After having a near-death experience when he was 11, he changed his belief system from Lutheran to agnostic.
He taught creative writing at the University of Iowa from 1963 to 1967.
He married his second wife, Sherry Hansen Steiger, in 1987.
He has appeared on the radio program Coast to Coast, hosted by Art Bell.