BIO
THE BIG PICTURE
I am a lawyer, but that wasn't my intended career path out of college. I wanted to be a New Testament scholar and attended Harvard Divinity school for a year, but fate led me down a different path. I transferred to the law school and never looked back.
Growing up, I moved around a lot in Southern California when I was very young before settling down on a ranch outside the town of Nespelem, Washington on the Colville reservation. My father was a tribal leader and an enrolled member of the Colville Tribe. I identify as indigenous (28.125% mix of Canadian First Nations (12.5% Secwepemc) and
Native American (15.65% Colville)). The details of my genealogy are publicly available on Ancestry.com:
https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/32196604/family/familyview?cfpid=18202049562
After graduating from Northwest Nazarene College with a BA in religious studies/philosophy, I came east to Boston for graduate school and have lived on the east coast ever since.
Today, I live alone in the great state of Maryland with my two standard poodles, Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn) and Ellie (The Last of Us).
I work remotely for an excellent company. I love my job.
I write for the joy of creative expression. I don't need the money (I know, famous last words).
WRITING
I have published numerous novels with small, independent publishers (see BOOKS), the best known of which is the Win the Rings trilogy. I have also published an eclectic mix of short stories.
I will probably never write a NY Times bestseller. Still, I have won awards for my stories and gained favorable recognition for my writing.
I write what I like to read . . . mostly.
Some tropes I like:
º Strong female MCs/girls with swords
º Total nobody who becomes a total somebody (think Hobbits/Sam Gamgee)
º The brooding, misunderstood loner
Some tropes I don't like:
º Love at first sight
º The chosen one
º I have special powers, but spend half the book learning how to use them
º The slightest whiff of Mary Sue'ism
º I have a big secret, but can't tell anyone for reasons that make no sense
READING TASTES
Sci-fi: I prefer an element of adventure, maybe a dash of romance. I grew up on Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov, and they're still hard to beat. Very picky about space operas and epic fantasies. And if there's too much existential angst, I'm out of there.
High or Epic Fantasy: Occasionally. I see all epic fantasy as one long footnote to LoTR, but once in a while something catches my attention. A big fan of the Wheel of Time books, e.g.
Urban fantasy: Preferably stories that lean toward horror and myth and are not focused on humor or tongue-in-cheek
Literary fiction: About a third of what I read falls into this bucket
Romance: Preferably YA with an unusual setting or theme, and not one that takes place primarily inside a high school
Murder mysteries; Nope
Category romance; Kill me now
STREAMING HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2024 (so far)
TV Shows: True Detective: Night Country
Movies: Dune II
FOOD
Pros: Pizza, Chinese takeout, Tex-Mex, most American comfort food, fresh seafood
Cons: Anything touted as "healthy," all melons, Brussel sprouts, most casseroles
RANDOM STUFF
* I have a super talented daughter and two disabled sons. The boys keep things in perspective
* Big time Red Sox fan . . . I attended games 1 & 2 of the 2004 World Series
* I read Greek and Latin
* If I had lived . . .
In ancient Greece, I would have hung out in the agora with Socrates
In medieval Europe, I would have been a monk
In the 19th century American west, I would have been a Cheyenne dog soldier
In the roaring twenties in the US, I would have been a grifter
