More About Me
My default writing setup: on my ugly yellow sofa with my large orange cat, laptop on my lap, with a mug of tea (not pictured).
We also have a second cat. Although few who visit our house have seen her. She has hiding spots even we don't know about.
My wife and I have run several 5K's, 10K's, Half Marathons, and Marathons together. Here are just some of the metals we have earned.
(Full disclosure: 55% of the medals are my wife's.)
Pictured Above: All the hot sauces in my refrigerator.
I am on a mission to find the world's greatest hot sauce. I grew up on Frank's Red Hot (Apparently I don't have any at the moment). It's basic but it was the hot sauce I started putting on popcorn back in middle school so it has a special place in my heart.
"Okay," you might be saying. "Cats and an unhealthy interest in hot sauces might all be well and good but if you're a writer shouldn't you be discussing your influences?"
Well, here are some of my oldest influences:
CALVIN AND HOBBES by Bill Watterson was one of the first things I ever read. In fact it was probably how I learned to read.
This was my first collection. My grandma gave it to me for Christmas back when I was in kindergarten.
And BONE by Jeff Smith taught me how various genres (humor, adventure, fantasy and even a bit of horror) can beautifully weave together. It was the first comic book series I was ever obsessed with. I discovered this first volume when I was a kid and as the years passed the story sort of grew up with me, starting off as a slapstick story with goofy characters before turning into a mythic saga .
I know that as an author I should say that my greatest influence is The Great Gatsby or The Lord of the Rings. And while I love those, probably the book that has influenced me the most is THE DEVIL'S DOOR-BELL by Anthony Horowitz (he would later write the Alex Rider series as well as create a number of TV shows, including Foyle's War.) THE DEVIL'S DOOR-BELL was my first foray into the darker genres when I was a kid. I randomly found it on a bookshelf in my public library and immediately became obsessed. Up until that point most of the books I had read were sanitized, following kids who acted the way adults wanted kids to act. This book taught me that books could also be terrifying, morbid and fun.
And finally here is an influence from my adult years. THE EMOTIONAL CRAFT OF FICTION by Donald Maass is the best book on writing I have ever read. Other books teach you how to create a plot or understand the publishing industry, and while that's important, this book guides you in how to create characters your readers will connect with. That is the most vital thing you can do as an author. There are characters in my novel, short stories and comics who wouldn't exist if it weren't for this book.
So what have I been reading more recently? Here is a list of just a few of my favorite reads from the past few years:
A PSALM FOR THE WILD BUILT and A LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET both by Becky Chambers
MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW by Stephen Graham Jones
THE RED RISING series: by Pierce Brown
Some older stories/texts that have influenced me include:
When it comes to graphic novels and comics some of my favorite more recent titles include:
SAGA Written by Brian K Vaughan and Illustrated by Fiona Stables
LOCKE & KEY Written by Joe Hill and Illustrated by Gabrel Rodríguez
BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES Written and Illustrated by Patrick Horvath
THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE Written by James Tynion IV and Illustrated by Álvaro Martínez Bueno
As anyone who has had a 5-minute conversation with me can tell you, I'm also a huge fan of movies. Here is a list of recent films I've loved:
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES (2023)
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (2023)
BOTTOMS (2023) - One of the funniest movies I have ever seen.
*These movies are on my list of films that are unlike anything I have ever seen.
So that's (more or less) me in a nutshell. Check back (or sign up for my newsletter) for updates on various projects.
And now (for absolutely no reason) I'm going to end with a photo of our cat watching HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS:
