Hello
I've always known I wanted to write. I started creating short narratives using stuffed animals as puppets when I was very young. I used my active imagination to create games and scenarios with my siblings and friends growing up. Mythology and fantasy fascinated--and still fascinate--me, so when I began to write, that's what flowed out onto the page. I'm grateful to now be able to try to share the imagination I have with the world. Thanks for joining me on this journey!
My Story
My life's story is both unlike many and similar to plenty of others. I grew up in Peru, South America as the son of missionaries. I spent most of my education from second grade onward learning in Spanish while supplementing it with North American home school curriculum. While parts of growing up overseas were difficult, I can't imagine who I would be without it. The cross-cultural and cross-linguistic experiences I gained from that upbringing have guided my story-telling, informed my world-building, and given me fascination with languages.
Throughout high school and college, writing and world-building were my hobbies. I tried a variety of other extracurricular activities, but nothing really made an impact as much as writing did. I think it was a way for me to make sense of the mixture of cultures and ideas blending within. I was content with writing as a hobby, though. I enjoyed it and occasionally dreamed of publishing, but had no real expectations of doing so.
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After earning a bachelor's in Communications from Wheaton College in 2013, I pursued a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. My career plan was to pursue a Ph.D. in linguistics and eventually teach at the college level somewhere. As I applied for Ph.D. programs, though, I realized that my academic interests were too vague and unfocused to be a good candidate. For the next few years, I worked a variety of jobs in a variety of places as my wife went through further schooling and grew her career. We lived in Washington D.C., Austin, Texas, and now Phoenix, Arizona.
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Eventually, I settled into teaching Spanish at the high school level by leveraging my linguistics degree and fluency in the language. I loved teaching, but always found the grind of planning lessons each day and grading more than simply tedious. I kept finding myself daydreaming of fantasy worlds or story ideas whenever I had a few spare moments. In the end my desire to write began to overtake my focus at work and I began to hope for a change.
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With the birth of my first child in 2022, my wife and I discussed the possibility of me being a stay-at-home parent. While somewhat counter-cultural, it made a lot of sense financially and fit our personalities well. In the years since then I've been able to enjoy life with my kids and spend more time writing. My first priorities will always be to my family and their needs, but the flexibility afforded to me by being the stay-at-home parent has allowed me to pursue my interests without feeling like I'm procrastinating on my day job. I love writing and hope to produce published material as soon as I can.