About Gimpa

Gimpa's mission is purely and simply to make people laugh; failing that, to bring a smile to someone's face.

Gimpa's vision is that anyone faced with bereavement, depression, anger or other negative feelings will call to mind a delightful episode that elicits feelings of contentment, whimsy and comical pleasantry.

Gimpa is Kevin O'Brien, a resident of the small town of Smithville, Missouri near the big city of Kansas City, Missouri. He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri and has lived in Northwest Missouri most of his life. He worked his way through college with a series of jobs that provided much of the material for his second book, Gimpa Goes to Work. He married Regina and his life with her gave him the experiences recounted in Gimpa's Household Hints.

Gimpa chose the technology arena to provide his means of support. Technology permeates so much of our life and society that Gimpa could work in a variety of industries among people with diverse backgrounds. He has worked in transportation, manufacturing, medicine, entertainment, agriculture, warehousing, marketing, finance and military, just to mention the highlights.

Gimpa began writing at a very early age. His parents encouraged him to read and he developed a love for it. His favorite authors wrote science fiction and fantasy.

It didn't take long for the writing bug to bite Gimpa. He composed his own adventures, inflicting them on his parents (who pretended to like them) and his younger siblings (who also pretended to like them, but for different reasons). He wrote an epic science fiction tale that circulated among his extended family until it was misplaced by a cousin. A teacher suggested submitting his works for publication and the sad feelings that accompany rejection slips introduced themselves. One in particular remained a puzzle for several years. It referred to a poem submitted to a literary magazine that the responding editor rejected though it was "masterful". She said it was "pornographic". The ten-year-old author did not know the meaning of that word and the adults around him would not explain.

Gimpa floundered after high school. He liked kids, so thought a teaching career might be fulfilling. He enrolled in college aiming at a degree in English. Since he had to pay his own way, he embarked on what he expected to be a temporary railroad career. He worked for twelve years in various positions, mostly in management. The money was good, the tuition assistance even better. After fifteen years in college, he graduated with a degree in mathematics.

His railroad career put him in intimate contact with computers. He started out writing simple queries, maintaining the computing equipment and troubleshooting data errors. When the railroad laid him off with a generous severance package he finished college. Before graduating he signed on with a fledgling software company that authored factory automation systems. A series of programming jobs followed throughout the next thirty-five years, during which Gimpa raised a family and continued to write.

Gimpa found out he was no kind of handy-man. His coped with his frustrations by composing short stories of his ill-fated escapades. These he would send to friends and relations. He soon began to hear "You should write a book." So he did. Thus was born Gimpa's Household Hints. Realizing he had a wealth of similar material resulting from employment misadventures, he then composed Gimpa Goes to Work. As of the time of this writing, Gimpa Does Christmas is almost ready for publication and Gimpa's Wildlife Encounters is underway (watch for a sample chapter on this website). Titles for future projects include Gimpa Gets a Dog, Gimpa Raises Kids and additional volumes of his first two works. He has also started on a science fiction comedic adventure with an unlikely premise that will be titled Outrageous Fortune.