For modern fiction I enjoy Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler. I also enjoy Edgar Allen Poe and Ernest Hemmingway. My favorite non-fiction history author is Walter Isaacson. I also enjoy the unique historical works of Jeffrey Shaara.

There are two things that inspire to get out of bed. The first is my family, especially my sons. I want to provide them with a childhood full of wonder and adventure. My second reason is more selfish, I still want to live a life full of wonder and adventure! Life is so short, the bed, the TV, and aimless time on the internet steals our time away from us.

I really enjoy my full-time job as a teacher, college instructor, and part-time administrator. Although it is tiring at times, I am one of those lucky ones that really enjoy their profession.
I try to spend as much of my free time as possible with my family, especially my sons, so I have spent a great deal of time coaching their sports teams, which I have loved.
I also enjoy camping, travel, SCUBA diving, and watching sports.

In first grade I wrote a poem about a leprechaun. My first crack at a full-fledged story was in seventh grade. It was called World War III. The entire war in 30 pages! Needless to say, there was very little character development, but at least it was fast-paced!

It starts with early morning walks around my neighborhood which is when I get most my of my ideas. Then I like to let my creative juices flow without much thought to order or grammar. I will often jump around from chapter to chapter as I get inspired to tackle certain parts of the story. After I have filled in all of the holes and completed the first draft, I will put it away for a while and work on something else. I will then read the story and makes changes and corrections as needed. I then send the story to trusted family who will critique it for me. Then I make one more reread before I send it off for final editing.

It was either Tom Sawyer or the biography of U.S. Grant. Loved both of them.

1984- very powerful and even more important today than it was in 1948.
The Jungle - a classic tale of how history impacts the lives of ordinary people.
The Old Man and the Sea - Simply could not put it down.
The collected works of Jeff Shaara - the inspiration for my own work.
The works of Clive Cussler - bubble gum fiction, but it is always a good time.

I usually rotate between a non-fiction book of history, a classic, and then a lighter Cussler or Dan Brown novel.

Just starting! I am willing to take suggestions!

Messy and cluttered.

Idaho Falls, ID. I had great literature teachers at IFHS.

Elementary school.

It is based around the Battle of Tours in 732. It may have been one the most important battles that no one has every heard of. If the outcome had been different the history of Western Civilization would likely have been drastically different. It is not out of question that Europe would have been converted to Islam and Christianity may have gone the way of the worship of the Olympian gods.
This period of history is almost a black hole, so I chose to imagine a story that describes how the life of a few people could have been impacted by these tremendous events.
The core of the story is not about East v. West or Christianity v. Islam, its about the presence of good and evil on both sides of conflict. That is were the true brotherhood should lie. Where we are born or what religion we are born into is a superficial category in comparison to the contents of our character.

Freedom Seas, its about a young man who is the product of a slave mother and a powerful plantation owner father. He is brilliant, charismatic, and handsome, but in the world that he is born into all that matters is the color of his skin. He finally finds freedom as a pirate fighting against the society that has shunned him.

Two things: I enjoy having complete control over my own works and frustration with the slow aggravating process of traditional publishing.