Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m sensitive, I like to read, take long walks on the beach…no, wait, sorry wrong bio.
I’m always tempted to post my resume when asked this question as I, like many, define myself more by accomplishments than qualities. So here goes; Scientist (PhD in Biology), Army guy (LTC in the Army Reserve, prior Apache helicopter pilot and Iraqi Freedom vet), husband of one and father four. And now it seems, also a writer of strange stories. I’m upbeat, hard-working, with a pretty good sense of humor and I try to keep as fit as time allows.
What got you into writing?
As a scientist I write extensively. But what spurred me into writing for the non-technical crowd was the War in Iraq. Sounds corny, I know, but there it is. I was deployed to the Middle East for just about a year as an Operations Officer (S3) for an Aviation task force. When I returned I had all these great stories and all of my family and friends encouraged me to write them down. So I thought, how hard can be? I sat down at my keyboard...and it stared back at me….hmm, harder said than done.
What are you working on right now?
Work, real work to pay the mortgage and kids tuition. But you probably meant with regards to writing. The first story I wrote with the intent of publishing, was the Gift of the Bouda (appeared in The Beast Within Anthology from Graveside tales, 2008). It’s a tale of a special operations captain on a mission to east Africa, he and his team intend to take down a terrorist cell, but instead come face to face with a were-hyena (Bouda). One thing leads to another and our hero is infected. I liked John (the protag) so much I novelized the short story. The lycanthropic-affliction serves as a metaphor for post-traumatic stress disorder and the problems vets face trying to reintegrate into ‘normal’ society following a life-altering experience. Not quite cathartic, but almost.
Any advice for aspiring writers?
Read. Write. Read more. Write more. Join a critique group (I recommend strongly ‘critters’, online group) and let other writer wannabe’s like us look under your Kimono. Be humble and listen. Then read and write and read and write more. Also, read broadly outside of your genre of choice- good stuff, bad stuff, and stuff you would NEVER read (even Romance!). There are a million writing advice books out there and some are fine, some blow. After I was writing for a while I went through the curriculum for a few MFA programs and noted the common texts. I bought them on line (Amazon) and read them too. These aren’t too helpful when you first get started, but when you have a few hundred thousand words under your belt they start to make sense. Oh, and do not quit your day job!
Tell your fans something about yourself that they probably don't know.
I have a little farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where I am establishing a flock of Welsh Kerry Hill sheep, from scratch. I have a sheep blog linked to me writing blog (which is www.genuineapocrypha.blogspot.com).