The author was born the year 1978 Harbor City, California, and grew up in San Pedro, California. As a pre-teen, he was fascinated by the rich fantasy worlds of Japanese role playing videogames such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and Phantasy Star, and would on occasion scribble his own juvenile adventures starring his favorite characters. While attending middle school, he was introduced to the fantastical world of Xanth created by author Piers Anthony. Its fantastical settings and zany characters would lure him away from many classes. He came to miss so many, in fact, the school was compelled to change policy; regardless of exam scores, excessive absence would result in half credit. He left Xanth and cracked down on studies.
One of his teachers in particular, during an open house with the author's father and stepmother, had rolled up her sleeve and expressed how the author's history essays had given her goose bumps.
As a high school student, finding himself in expository comp., he was quickly given a writing assignment intended to establish each student’s proficiency. The due date would come and go with the author nowhere near completion. He was given an extension. Near the end of the semester, after months of writing - subsequently having completed no other assignments for that class - he finished and turned in ABANDONMENT. He wouldn’t see another English class until college; instead, he was placed on the staff of the school paper, where article after article would be butchered by his editor on the grounds of being too sensational. During these years the author would develop some of his strongest relationships. The grandmother of a friend soon introduced him to the wonderful world of Midkemia, created by Raymond E. Feist. More classes were missed, and credits lost. He left Midkemia and cracked down, graduating by the skin of his teeth.
After graduating from San Pedro High School - his father and economics teacher conspiring to enlist him in the Air Force - he attended Boot Camp at Lackland Airforce Base, Texas. Very few push-ups and drills were had, to the author’s ultimate dismay, but there was plenty of anal-retentive folding of uniforms and scrubbing of grout. The author has been a neat freak ever since, and thanks the U.S. Military for the O.C.D. that has enabled him to construct a rich fantasy world of his own. The military not being an adventure, but a job, the author contrived an academic discharge and parted ways with the service before ever being stationed.
Finding himself spinning wheels in a port town more inclined to build than create, the author moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania to live with his uncle and attend West Chester University. The author began a strict routine of waking at four in the morning to write, and had soon found himself eighty pages into a fantasy frolic. Having come from another state, he was floored by the exorbitant enrollment fees and so took up employment in a not-so-local bookstore. With no vehicle, the author discovered the hardships of walking to work in the snow… up hill… both ways - no exaggeration, the book store was on the other side of a hill. But what stories he’ll have for his grandchildren! With grand plans of bridging the gap between computer programming and graphic design, he enrolled in university intending to pursue a degree in programming. Achieving a mere “C” in calculus, he scrapped such lofty goals. His brain felt torn in two, from simultaneously enrolling in his first English class since the tenth grade and Calculus. An English class wherein were assigned evaluation groups that unanimously applauded the author’s papers as often as the professor derailed them. Well, not quite all of them. The professor had conceded an "A" for a paper that held an uncanny resemblance to writing processes he himself had employed - the paper having covered the means in which to manifest atmosphere in literature. While working to pay for such derailment, the author would meet a lovely young woman that would introduce him to the phantasmagoric world of H. P. Lovecraft (http://www.hplovecraft.com/ ). Classes were never missed - they were too damn expensive - but impressions were made. The author scrapped the eighty page fantasy frolic and opted to follow a more twisted bent, trading in biceps for botanists and princesses for pedophiles. Still manning the counter of the bookstore, he would discover the gritty world of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series (http://www.westeros.org/ ). Now this was a fantasy he could sink his teeth into. His palette being forever changed, quickly acquired the works of Lord Dunsany, Brian McNaughton, and Mervyn Peake. The biting cold and sweltering summers soon wore on the author, and after eighteen months he returned home. The author was twenty-one.
To be continued…
