About Me

Circa 2010.

(Everyone writer worth a hoot needs a blurry manly picture of themselves in underwear with a rifle.)

I guess I should brag about myself here.

I’m ruggedly handsome and slightly egotistical with a bizarre sense of humor. Everything is a joke. If I’m not smiling like an idiot people think I’m mean and intimidating looking. That’s beneficial in navigating the depths of hell called Walmart. People tend to get out of your way quicker.

I have a degree in Criminal Justice and a minor in Sociology. I spent most of college struggling to make it through. Towards the end I got into competition shooting and that’s still my sport of choice. After graduation I planned on moving to Wyoming to be a Peace Officer.

Then I could kill all the good animals and bad people I want to eat.

(Oh geez, I can’t edit that line, it made me laugh when I wrote it.)

Except there aren’t many bad people in Wyoming, because everyone is armed.

Then, because the mercenary in me didn’t see the financial compensation for putting your life on the line for others to be worth the risk, I planned on going through a gunsmithing course to be a gunsmith. That sounded exciting and profitable.

Except that plan fell through due to funding.

So, I ended up enlisting and spending six years in the glorious Marine Corps Infantry trying to go kill naughty folks who like to torture women and children and blow up innocents instead.  And because I believe we should kill them until their entire twisted ideology drowns in their own blood. Semper Fi.

The Corps was wonderful to me. (Except for the part where I broke the law years prior, and thus was forced to go in as enlisted instead of an officer.)

But, fulfilling a lifelong dream, I went in as a goober with no discipline, drive, or ambition. The discipline they beat into me. The drive and ambition came from the ego that was formed from us being better than most people. I rose through the ranks pretty quickly, reaching Sergeant in about five years and planned on retiring enlisted or gaining a battlefield commission to officer.

Here’s proof of my goals from the notebook I carried with me the entire time:

Along the way, I got married to a woman I totally don’t deserve. (She’s really, really ridiculously good looking.)

Then, as my six year contract was coming to an end, my wife was misdiagnosed with a particularly nasty mitochondrial disease and I was becoming tired of training to the same level and never being deployed. So I opted out of re-upping.

By the time we realized the misdiagnosis, I was unable to go back due to my tattoos.

Yes, you read that right.

My tattoos kept me from re-enlisting. Because it ruined my combat readiness or something. Yes, the Marine Corps Tattoo Policy is so strict and stupid that I wasn’t able to re-enlist because of Romans 13:4 being inked on my inner arm, an inch to close to my elbow. Which is ironic, since that’s the bible verse dealing with the righteousness of killing bad people.

So that kind of sucked.

Then, somehow, I fumbled my way into a completely different career.It wasn’t planned, but once I got hired on at a company, I really enjoyed being part of it and was promoted a few times until I had a nice stable income and a job I currently love.

How did I end up writing a book?

After years of being a good tax paying citizen and my wife telling me that I was a really good writer – I discovered Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Being a big reader, $10 a month for (almost) unlimited books seemed great… until I signed up. Then I quickly discovered that a lot of books out there just plain suck. They aren’t good. But people are paying to read them, and I figured, if these guys could write and publish a bad book – I could too. Except I’d try really hard for it to be good.

So, I started writing.  Over the 4th of July weekend (2017) I pounded out an outline and 15,000 words. I discovered, hey this is fun, I can do whatever I want in MY book!

And as I wrote more and more, I began to research and read about HOW TO WRITE. Because there is certainly a learning curve to writing fiction. The more I read about what elements are required to make a good story, the more I realized I was already doing it pretty naturally. And I’m no English Grammar/Literature guru. I’m just a guy who really liked to read and could tell what was good and what wasn’t.

And I figured, this is easy, six months and I’ll have a book worthy of being published.

Nope.

More like 18 months.

But once I was satisfied, I began to give it out to anyone who was interested. The feedback I received was awesome. People were impressed! They wanted to know when it’d go to print, where they’d be able to buy it, and when the sequel would be completed.

At that point, I began submitting it and collecting my rejections from Publishers and Agents. Which were numerous because as any new author can tell you, it’s hard to get picked up as a newbie. But I had several offers from smaller presses, which kept my hopes high as I kept sending it out with query letters.

And then I came across Severed Press. As soon as I saw their website, I KNEW that I’d be a good fit for them with my initial series. And several weeks later, they sent me an offer.

Which… I declined.

So, here was my thinking… I was already working on the sequel by the time I received the offer. It was near completion and I made the rather difficult decision to hold off on accepting the offer until my sequel was complete. Because I know what it’s like to start reading a series and having to wait forever for the next book to come out. I wanted the first one published and immediately have a second book ready to go to print. I wanted to go wide open into the world of selling books. I wanted to prove to myself, that not only could I write a good book, I could write multiple good books. I wanted to know that I was a writer and not just lucky once.

So, I proved it to myself. I finished the sequel, accepted the contract which thankfully they re-offered, and published my first book, West of Prehistoric.

And it appears to be selling very, very well. The reviews coming in are also fantastic. It seems I did a good job as a rookie wannabe author.

Now, we wait for the sales numbers to come in to see if Severed Press will pick up my second book. Which is currently languishing on my thumb drive as I work on the third book in the series.

That brings us to the present.

Future plans – I’ve a four book series in mind for West of Prehistoric with a possible fifth spin-off. And a ‘return’ to the world I’ve created in the early 1900’s. Because early 1900’s weaponry and technological advancements are just incredible and it’s a fun time period.

I also have a WWII Pacific Island/Monster/Marine book I have outlined. I’ve been dying to do a Space Trooper/Space Marine/etc book for a long time as well. And there’s a bunch of ideas I’ve on a word file that are waiting to be delved deeper into.

Basically, I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to write about and I plan on doing a lot of that in the future.

And… since you bothered to read all that…

Here’s your reward.  A video of me being tasered in the Ukraine during a training operation. My high pitched girly screams carried across the vast plains and all the way to Russia. Putin was so disturbed he pulled the covers over his head and clutched his KGB teddy bear tighter.

Edit 6/8/2022 – Book II, “Enter Prehistoric” and Book III, “Taming Prehistoric” have been released in kindle, paperback, and audible. Book IV, “Something? Prehistoric” is in the works.