ABOUT

WHERE I'VE BEEN

I've been writing stories ever since I learned to write. I got my first acceptance letter in second grade, wrote my first novel in high school, and got my first rejection letter shortly after graduation. I once wrote Dean Koontz for writing advice, and astonishingly he took the time to answer.

Then I did what a lot of writers do: I made a practical choice. I became a professor. For sixteen years at Northern Arizona University, I taught writing. I also wrote a lot myself, including a book titled Evil Children in the Popular Imagination and fifty some other things. I built a serious career doing serious work with serious writers. And I was so happy for a time.

WHERE I'M GOING

But I knew I couldn’t do it another fifteen years. My life wanted a plot twist. So I retired. Now I'm a freelance editor. I’m writing a nonfiction book. I’m writing a novel. I have plans to launch a crowd-sourced research platform social media thingamajig called How About You? I’m building a life around writing—mine, and hopefully yours. My second-grade self couldn't be happier.

I live in Flagstaff, Arizona—pine trees, not giant cacti—with my dogs Daisy and Alice and my cat Ferris Mewler. Eventually, I want to make my way back to Mt. Rainier and the Pacific. When I’m not knee deep in words, I hike, camp, backpack, and photograph things. I recently got my scuba diving certification and discovered that my worst fear—swimming in the ocean at night—is also one of my favorite things ever. I’m also a level-seven guitar player on Yousician, a mediocre painter, a lapsed cross-stitcher, and have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of inserting literary references into anything I can.