I was born many years ago in a galaxy far, far away. Okay, I was born in Cleveland. It's only like a galaxy far, far away. At least to those of us who live on the left coast.
I spent a good part of my childhood in Central Oregon, the land of juniper and lava formations. The time I spent out on the range on horseback I remember as the most free I've felt in my life. I divided my time between that and reading, spending as little time on everything else as I could finagle. By the time I was in fourth grade both my teachers and my parents (father and stepmother) had reached the limits of their tolerance. They took my books away.
So, if I wasn't allowed to read, I decided to craft my own stories. I picked up a pen and a notebook and the rest, as they say, is history.
Throughout my unsettled life since, the only constant has been writing. Long before I discovered computers I would sit and fill up notebook after notebook with my stories.
I didn't know if I'd ever get published, but I dreamed of it.
At nineteen I started designing a role-playing game based on my work. It wasn't anything special, I suppose, but it kept us entertained on the weekends for the better part of fifteen years. As time went on I started pouring more into actual writing and the game fell somewhere along the wayside, though I did spend a little time about a year ago designing a d20 supplement based on my current understanding of where my Infinity Earth series would lead.
I tend to think role-playing games are vastly underrated in general. One of my goals is to create a game system that can be easily injected into an educational setting. Utilizing the themes of time travel and alternate history, as well as a magic system that requires accurate knowledge as well as imagination to work properly, players would need to study and increase their own knowledge to succeed in the game.
Other Interests
My wife was the Shiba Inu co-rep for SPDR. We got involved with these folks not long after I bought my dog Kitsune (the name stems from Japanese mythology, and refers to a magical fox spirit). Shiba Inus are a primitive breed, which means they are very pack oriented and need strong leadership. If the humans don't assume the role of Alphas, the dogs will. And that's a bad idea. Shibas are clever animals and can be very manipulative if you let them.
My wife and I are well known for being able to work with problem Shibas, ones that have suffered abuse or neglect. We run a strong pack and we have had a great deal of success training dogs out of such things as food or fear aggression. It takes a lot of compassion and patience, but its very worthwhile seeing a dog who might well have been condemned to death going to a good home after all.
