Press Kit

I had a rather idyllic childhood, growing up in the woods of West Virginia. I was outside most of the time as a kid, playing sports usually, basketball, whiffle-ball, and a lot of two-hand touch football, among many others. I liked to draw and read science fiction mostly, when I wasn’t playing sports or board games. I always loved playing games, pretty much of any sort. I am a long time MMORPGer from way back.

After a knee injury playing soccer in 7th grade, I turned my attention to academics and turned into a pretty good student–good enough to get an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. In high school I ran track and cross-country, and wrestled for a year. I wasn’t great at any of them, but I really enjoyed running. It started as a rehab for my knee, which kept me sidelined for a almost two years before I could really do much with it. I lost most of my speed, but my determination remained intact.

At USAFA I dabbled in a lot of sports, like snow skiing, boxing and volleyball. I played on the handball club competitively as well. I was an okay student. I never really struggled, but I let grades slip on the final nearly every class. It would come back to haunt me later when I wanted to continue my education in the AFIT program. I didn’t qualify. In hindsight I don’t think I was really ready for college. I started at 17 and even though I had the smarts for it, I didn’t have the maturity to take it seriously. I did well enough to finish with my degree, though.

After graduation, I went straight to pilot training and on to a career in the Air Force.  I spent thirty years flying the KC-135 Stratotanker, an air refueler, the first twelve years in the active duty Air Force and the rest in the Air Force Reserve, thirty-two years total.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the world, but there are still a lot of places I’d like to visit.

I am married to the best life accomplice in the known universes and father of four grown adults. I have one granddaughter so far and have been living in Indiana since 1999.

My bachelor’s degree is in Economics, and in June of 2015 I finished my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. I’ve been doing stories for years in various forms but finally decided to take it seriously. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I’ve been writing in earnest since 2008, and have two completed novels in recent years, and recently published a paranormal short story in a shared world anthology. I’m working on several other novel length stories and a few shorter pieces. My chosen genre is science fiction, but I have ideas percolating for a mystery series and an epic fantasy story.

When I’m not writing, I am probably playing Hero Wars or surfing the web, checking my Substack feed or Facebook or listening to podcast.  I love to listen to music or audiobooks. I also love to read, books on writing, mysteries, thrillers, but mostly science fiction. I draw in pencil and pastel chalk and enjoy a good poker game.