Who is This Asshole, Anyway?
I’m a writer, writing coach, reluctant technologist, and a father of six—which, it turns out, is the only thing that matters.
The rest of the bio goes like this: dropped out of high school twice, GED at 19, fifteen years in tech support, field install, training, technical writing, web and print design and coding all at the same time. I worked for a small company in the call center industry, so telemarketers called me and I had to answer. This created a visceral revulsion to the sound of a ringtone. Fortunately, the cloud called toll free, and I answered. Suddenly I was getting paid like an expert despite only one real skill: being the Guy Who Figures Shit Out™.
I also liked the writing part. Spent years honing it on technical documentation—distilling complicated things into instructions for morons. Kept me from drinking turpentine.
Well, that’s not true. I wrote my first Star Trek fanfic novel when I was 15 on my 286 home PC. (Suck it Martin!)
It’s All About Me
I’m an autodidact, which means I learn just enough about everything to get into trouble. Coupled with an unearned sense of confidence, people keep paying me to be an expert. I don’t have a degree. I have an applied kinesiology certification and a phone system installer credential for a phone system that hasn’t existed for 20 years. Still more useful than the GED. Make of that what you will.
What I actually bring to the page: I’ve lost people. I’ve been the bad son and the imperfect brother and the father trying to outrun both. I’ve raised kids who feel wrong in rooms that weren’t built for them. I know what it’s like to carry grief you don’t have language for yet—the kind that sits in the walls of a house where naming the dead feels like stopping time.
That’s what ended up in my fiction. Whether it be zany slapstick, or atmospheric beauty, there’s always that kick in the nuts that brings you down to the ground on your knees. Not because I plan it. But that’s what’s behind the mask—cosplaying characters with the voices in my head.
What I Write
Dark fiction about people who don’t fit. Character driven. Immersive as I can. As human as I can figure.
The Shadowmancer Chronicles — YA historical fantasy with horror underneath. 1921 Massachusetts. A fifteen-year-old girl hears something ancient calling and answers it. Seven books. Mythology, grief, and the specific experience of feeling wrong in a world that keeps misreading you. Written for the strange kids. Read the first seven chapters of Book 1 on Substack →
The Girl with the Cybernetic Eye — Adult sci-fi serial. Simonee Saran steals the wrong keycard on Enceladus Station and spends the rest of the series paying for it. A full book is already live, the second is in progress, and it’s heading to market. It’s about imposter syndrome, found family, and the exhausting performance of competence when you’re not sure you have any. Read it on Substack →
More books are in the hopper. I’m not betting on one horse.
Shameless
I don't take myself too seriously and I'm not offended by negative feedback. Unfair or abusive feedback might piss me off, but if you think something I wrote is bad, dumb, or unkind—troll me in the comments. I might not ignore you.
Family
Kids are expensive, so I work a lot. They run the gamut of “neurodiversity”—dyslexic, autistic, attention deficit, avoidant and often just antagonistic. But every damned one is brilliant. So I have to be brillianter than I am to show them how brilliant they can be. The Shadowmancer Chronicles comes from my experience getting them to school, getting them through life, and trying not to screw it up too bad. Maybe it’ll help some other kids like them… or like me.
Subscribe
I don’t really do paid subscriptions because I don’t want the pressure of having to make you people happy, but I do accept tips. So, feel free to buy me a whiskey.
Or, even send me a message
Why are you all the way down here?
