I grew up in Michigan, the youngest in a family of storytellers, which meant that if I wanted anyone to listen, I’d better make it good. I never really stopped trying.
After a detour through Rice University for a degree in Mechanical Engineering, I spent the next thirty-plus years designing things that (mostly) didn’t fall down, moving from Texas to Virginia to Ohio to North Carolina to Colorado along the way. In whatever time engineering didn’t claim, I was usually on a stage somewhere in the middle of a musical, because apparently once wasn’t enough for the family storyteller gene.
What I’ve always loved, longer than any of that, is history: not the version that makes it into textbooks, but the how and why underneath it. History gets written by the victors, which means the truest stories are usually the ones nobody thought to record. I’ve spent a career of novels chasing those: a forgotten queen’s version of the Sheba story, a Visigoth prince shipwrecked into a world no European was supposed to find, a Confederate gunner’s reckoning with everything the war cost him, an alternate revolution fought with steam and phlogiston instead of muskets alone. Different centuries, same question: whose story didn’t we hear?
Alongside the novels, I wrote Runes for Writers, a nonfiction bestseller, and built out the creativity system behind it, which is either a very serious tool for beating writer’s block or an excuse to keep talking about runes, depending on the day.
I’ve been fortunate enough to be recognized by Backspace Writers, the National Writers Association, Pikes Peak Writers, and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers along the way, which still surprises the kid who couldn’t get a word in at the dinner table.
These days I live in Lisbon, Portugal, with my wife and our Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, who has strong opinions about deadlines and none of them are sympathetic.
Where to find me
- Fiction: historical novels, thrillers and alternate history
- Non-Fiction: Runes for Writers, rune decks and dice, and Design Your Life
- The Journal: the history behind the books, craft notes and life in Lisbon
- Media: press kit, headshot and interview topics
- Contact: rights, media, speaking and book clubs