My literary odyssey started when I was just six years old. I wasn’t writing then; I was reading. I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a child. Books were my escape and I found new worlds, some similar to my own and others completely alien. Tolkien let me bask in the afternoon sun on the porch of Bag End. Asimov had me questioning the laws of robotics and what it meant to be human. Each book I picked up led me to ask those around me which book I should read next.
As I grew older, I wrote many stories but never shared them, usually throwing them away when I was finished. I didn’t feel like I had the skills to weave together a story someone would actually want to read. My passion for reading led me to the best teacher I would ever find in a high school English class. Her name was Joanne Burnett. Her science fiction and fantasy class showed me that there were others who were just as passionate as myself. There, I was introduced to such wonderful authors such as Terry Pratchett, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Robert Heinlein.
I attended WorldCon when it was close enough to be affordable. At the first one, I found something beyond writing: a captivating woman named Ann who would eventually become my wife and early editor. I had the privilege of speaking to a favorite author, Tim Powers. I mentioned to him that I couldn’t find a new book series to read at the con like I had in the past. He told me that if I couldn’t find the book I wanted to read, then I needed to create my own.
After returning from WorldCon, I sat down and spent a month creating my first draft. The result was a laughable and barely cohesive string of thoughts. I was determined to finish it, to make it into the story I wanted it to be. I attended book-writing classes by Brandon Sanderson and Neil Gaiman. After each class, I rewrote a new draft of my book, and with each one, the story slowly started to come to the surface. After two years, my story was finished, or at least I thought it was. I soon found out that the journey from finished story to published work was much harder than anything I had done so far. I sent my book out to hundreds of agents. I found the wonderful feedback and even praise I received from some agents to be where I faltered. If I couldn’t get someone who liked my book to want to publish it, then who would? I had all but given up when my wife heard of a small publisher in Canada called Global Book Publishing that was holding a seminar.
After the seminar, I met with the company’s owner, Sush Dutta. Sush saw something in not only my writing, but also in me as an author. We teamed up, and six months later, I had a completed book.
I took the tools Sush taught me and put them to work. I soon had several editorial articles praising my book, ‘Crop Burner: The Tale of Fearn & The Deamhon’. I also hit the road, with Ann by my side, attending our favorite conventions. We found ourselves quickly running out at every convention we attended.
During this time, I started on a children’s book. I was able to team up with a long-time friend, Steve Gaddis, to illustrate it for me. I soon had a second book that needed publishing, and the first person I turned to was Sush. She was quickly onboard, and in a few months, I had my second book in hand, The Friend Exchange.
