Union of Renegades

I was born in Michigan in 1972 and grew up in Mount Pleasant. It's called the "Mountain Town" but there is no mountain and it's debatable about whether it's pleasant. They say it's a party town and based on extensive research as a young adult I can concur.

Because I always had the childhood fantasy of running away and joining the circus, I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1995 and lived there until 1997. Those who only stay a week are wimps, but I will say that it's the second year in Vegas that wears you down. Then I realized the pioneers were trying to get to California, and Nevada was not the goal. So I moved to Chico, in Northern California and lived there until 2009. I miss Chico dearly and value greatly the experience of living in that enlightened realm (local government excluded).

My wandering has circled back and I'm currently residing in Battle Creek, Michigan. I think I adore the place, but that doesn't make sense. I'm still California dreamin' and fantasize about my return to the Golden State, but for now my existence within the post-apocalyptic Rust Belt is suitably fascinating. In 2000, I earned a journalism degree from California State University, Chico with the conscious ambition of becoming a fiction writer. With the rapid demise of the newspaper industry and journalism in general, novelist is not such a daft pursuit after all. It's not like I'm actually going to get a job that values my education. Luckily I'm cursed with the impulse to write in a popular yet competitive genre.

I consider writing a necessary activity that I enjoy. I have the most fun writing in the fantasy genre. I find inspiration in history. Placing characters in an elder fantasy world fascinates me and allows me to explore age-old notions of bravery when combat was often done face-to-face. Magic is another story element that adds to the pleasure of writing in this genre.

Since learning to read and write as a child, I always knew that I wanted to write novels. The Rys Chronicles, Rys Rising, and Werewolves in the Renaissance represent the efforts of many adult years.