My fascination with space began at a very young age. I fondly remember sitting on my grandmother’s front porch with my great-uncle as he introduced me to the stars. I learned their names and locations and gleefully shared this information with anyone who would listen. My love of all things space-related only grew with my passion for reading. My parents had a hard time keeping enough books around for me to devour (a trait, I’m pleased to say, I now share with my own children). Both the school and the city library quickly became a haven for my insatiable thirst. I read everything I could get my hands on… including my father’s Time Life books about space, aliens, and anything else I could find.
At eight years old my father read The Hobbit with me, followed by the Lord of the Rings. Within those covers filled with J.R.R. Tolkien’s words, I discovered my love for adventure and learned about evil and corruption. Reading such an incredible story at the tail end of my formative years instilled in me a strong sense of doing the right thing at all costs. If you’ve read my work you’ve no doubt seen this come across in my writing. Even now I’m a strong believer in doing the right thing, even when it isn’t easy (a lesson I try to teach my children).
As I grew, learned, and matured I continued to find comfort in tales of epic adventures and standing up for what’s right. All the while, the stars continued to pull at my heart. As my interest in space continued to blossom I grew interested in space travel and the trials of survival. I became a fan of Star Wars, Firefly, Stargate, Alien, Dr. Who, and so much more. Regardless of the books, television shows, and movies, I always found myself drawn to the starry heavens whenever I had the chance. Living in a small town offered a brilliant opportunity to view the night sky away from the bright lights of the city. There were many nights where I found my peace with the grass tickling my ears as I stared up at the shimmering pin-pricks from the lawn.
While I had always created wondrous stories in my mind, it wasn’t until I grew into adulthood that I began really putting them down on paper. I was no longer able to contain my ideas and worlds in my head. Ideas spilled out onto paper with the careful placement of each letter. I love everything about writing. From a crisp sheet of paper, to the look and feel of the ink as it glides across the white surface, I was hooked early on. Once the craft of writing grabbed hold, there was no letting go. I began to fill notebooks, then boxes, of stories, ideas, and even poetry. The therapeutic feeling of putting a pen to paper and allowing the ideas to grow beyond my own mind was freeing. No matter what else was going on in my life, writing was my escape.
While writing was always a passion, being a professional writer seemed unobtainable. Slowly, the idea of writing slipped from my mind as I explored other things. The funny thing about life is that it’s always changing. Things didn’t go quite as planned as I moved into the next chapter of my life and tried to grow our family. Creating life in my own head was easy compared to the trials we faced trying to conceive a baby of our own. Through this frustrating time, I once again found myself in need of an escape. I turned once more to writing and came up with the concept for The Cost of Survival. Over the next year, I worked on the story, finally taking pause as we brought our son into the world, and later, our daughter.
In the summer of 2017, following the spring birth of our beautiful daughter, I looked to writing yet again. My stories had always been there for me and I decided that it was now time for me to be there for them. I finished The Cost of Survival and a complimentary short story prequel with a plan for two more books in the series. I also brought another idea to life with the Ardent Redux Saga, a fun departure from the seriousness of the Genesis Rising trilogy. Both of these series are very different but not without their similarities. I’ve had a great time working on them both and look forward to sharing these and other tales with you all.
Created in WriterRemix
