Photo by CA Hoffman

I’ve lived in various places—Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, and upstate New York—but now make my home in Los Angeles. It’s a sun-bleached desert city of freaks, and I absolutely love it. When I’m not sitting in traffic, I’m studying martial arts, playing video games, and dreaming of rain.

Writer

I’ve been writing and publishing science fiction and fantasy stories for over a decade. In 1998, I sold my first story to an anthology called Prom Night, and my second story soon after to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress XVII. I attended (survived?) the Clarion Writers’ Workshop in 1999 (back when it was still in East Lansing, MI), which did nothing short of change my life.

After a move to Los Angeles (and a reboot of my life), I continued to write and publish short stories until 2006, when Jade Tiger, my first novel, was published by Juno Books. The novel bug stuck. In 2009, I signed with a wonderful agent at a wonderful agency, and am currently working on several middle grade action-adventure novels.

I’ve also dabbled in screenplay writing and had the pleasure of writing for a children’s TV show called Slangman’s World. (If you watch any of the videos, you’ll also catch my voice acting debut as a little blue language dictionary named Wordy.)

I’m a member of SFWA, SCBWI, and SFNovelists.

Martial Artist

Although I’ve always been interested in martial arts, I didn’t start studying them myself until 2001. I spent several years at a Shaolin Kempo Karate studio in Glendale. During that time, I began absorbing everything I could — books, movies, documentaries, etc. I visited other schools, watched friends compete in tournaments, and even traveled to South Korea for 10 days with a Hwa Rang Do school.

When a change of jobs forced me to move, I looked for a new school and found White Lotus Kung Fu Studio in Northridge, where I have been happily studying since 2006. I can’t say enough good things about White Lotus. In many ways, I feel like I’ve finally found my martial arts family. The studio’s motto has become meaningful for me in so many ways over the years:

Mind, Body, Spirit:
Let the Mind guide you,
The Spirit drive you,
And the Body protect you.

Martial arts has become a huge part of my life and one of my greatest passions. For that reason, you’ll find its influence in every novel I write.

Geek

Before I was a writer or a martial artist, I was a geek. Books, D&D (and every other rpg I could get my hands on), TV shows, movies, strategy boardgames, video games, World of Warcraft, comic books… my obsessions are many and extreme. You want to talk Whedon? Star Trek vs. Star Wars? X-Men vs. Heroes? Settlers of Catan vs. Carcassonne? If you do, then I’m your geek.