I was born in an army hospital in Frankfurt, Germany because my parents were stationed there with the US army. When I was one year old, we moved to Houston, Texas where I grew up. As a teen, I gained the rank of Eagle Scout and served as the commanding officer in my ROTC unit in High School. Having graduated as the valedictorian of my class, I attended Texas A&M University and obtained a degree in biology.
I worked for six and a half years as a biologist at an environmental consulting firm before being called into the ministry and attending Dallas Theological Seminary with my wife, Julie. After seminary I served as an associate pastor of singles ministry in New Jersey for seven and a half years before moving to Lake Jackson, Texas to serve as the Senior Pastor of Hope Fellowship Church for twenty-three years. I resigned at Hope Fellowship and served as an interim pastor in Oklahoma and Corpus Christi, Texas. I am now living in Lake Jackson and serving as a member of the church I once pastored.
I have three wonderful children: Melanie, Leslie, and Stephen. Stephen designed the map for the Chronicles of Altaran series as well as the second book cover. Leslie designed the rest of the book covers for the Chronicles series as well as the Shepherd King Saga series. Julie used her teaching background to help me edit all the books.
I enjoy gardening, reading, playing computer strategy games and saltwater fishing, even when I don’t catch anything.
I never imagined writing books. What got me started was part arrogance and part inspiration. I had been reading a multivolume best-selling fantasy series and had become frustrated because I couldn’t keep track of all the characters and I found the book’s descriptions to be too detailed. Finally, I said to myself, “I can do better than this,” hence the arrogance.
The inspiration came when I seriously considered writing and wanted to incorporate my Christian faith in my preferred genre, fantasy. I greatly admire the writings of both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and how they integrated their Christian faith into their stories. The Lord of the Rings is my all-time favorite trilogy, and I was drawn to Tolkien’s more subtle depiction of Christian themes and decided to follow his model.
The writing and the plot came easy to me. I credit God with inspiring the stories. However, God is not responsible for my limitations as a writer. I had to learn how to write and edit. Being part of a writing group helped me develop my writing as well as reading various books on the process. Carol Denis, who edited my first two books, also gave me a lot of good advice.
I am now working on my third fantasy series, which will be a trilogy entitled, Legacy.
Work hard. Pray harder.
