Norman was born in Chicago, Illinois. Coming from a single family home, he was a product of public housing where he and his sisters grew up. He describes his mother and three sisters as the initial foundation of his life. Being introduced to the world, in a small two bedroom apartment, with three females in the Ida B Wells projects set in motion a young man with a wild, vivid imagination. Norman is not only a writer but an artist as well and his works in both revile his creative imagination. Writing and painting are his way of expressing his view of the world and deep love for life in particular. Presently the father of four, grandfather of seven and a host of great grandchildren, he wants his legacy to be reflected in his interpretation of the world as he sees it. After serving three years in the U.S. Army, a few years prior to the Vietnam conflict, he returned to civilian life as a veteran at the young age of twenty years old.
Like most young men, in search of the meaning of life and manhood, his adventures only fed into his quest for answers to questions that could only be answered by day to day living. Returning to school after having dropped out at the age of seventeen, he first attended and graduated from Malcolm X Community College; followed by his attendance and subsequent graduation from Chicago State University earning both B.S. and M.S. degrees with emphasis on Correctional Psychology.
Norman has worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections, Cook County Juvenile Court in Chicago, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, the Chicago Public School System as well as an Adjunct Professor at Chicago State University. He has worked with numerous street gangs on Chicago’s West Side and served as an Ordained Deacon at New Faith International Baptist Church in Matteson, Illinois. Currently married to Mary A. Mason, a retired Chicago public school teacher, his wife of more than twenty years, he is now retired, and continues to write and paint while studying art and piano at the Ray and Joan Kroc Center in Chicago.