About Me

First and foremost, I write sci-fi and fantasy. Sometimes horror. Sometimes none of the above. But mostly what Ray Bradbury would call fantasy. 

Interests

I am a gamer. Since I am old enough to remember 1986--I was playing the original Super Mario Bros. on the original (North American) Nintendo Entertainment System. I have played more hours of the The Elder Scrolls Series than I'd care to admit. Nowadays I mostly enjoy tabletop gaming. Some of my favorite non-casual games are Root, Scythe, Wingspan, Pandemic (and Pandemic Legacy Seasons 1 and 2). Some of my more recent favorite casual tabletop games are Poetry for Neanderthals. 

I used to carry 4,000 M:tG cards with me to high school everyday. Instead of doing my homework, I'd spend my mornings deck building, and challenging friends. This is the 90s we're talking about now. I don't really play that much M:tG anymore, but sometimes you can find me on M:TG Arena.t

I have been bored most my life. To cure my boredom, I create things. Some of my favorite things to create are stories and games. Back when I worked as a bill collector, and I wasn't supposed to have anything out on my desk, I spend forty hours a week between phone calls crafting pen and paper role playing games (think Dungeons and Dragons--but way worse, since I didn't know what I was doing). 

Education and Schooling

The first book I picked up in the fifth grade? Stephen King's The Stand. My teacher looked at the book, looked at me, looked at the  book, and said, "We'll have to check with your parents on that." 

Having that said, I read the whole thing. Let's take a step back, however, for a moment. One thing you must know, if you're younger than I am, is things were different in the 80s. Kids back then grew up in a haze of cigarette smoke with no seatbelts. My father used to watch horror movies in front of four and five year old me. Things like Poltergeist. Things I couldn't make sense of, but that terrified me. So when I say I was a fifth grader reading Stephen King, don't get the wrong impression of my teachers. 

Born and Raised

I was born in a  small town in Upstate New York. Like, very small. My first school no longer exists, after it was consolidated into some other school district when the population starting falling, and costs started rising. 

I have three sisters, a mother, and a father (from which I am estranged). I have a stepfather. I currently live with my partner of several years, and our four cats. Our cats names are: Commander William T. Riker, Doctor Beverly Crusher, Dr. James "Bones" McCoy, and Captain Jean Luc Picard. You may have noticed a pattern.