As a child, I was never bored. While other kids complained of having nothing to do, I was constantly entertained by my overactive imagination. Everywhere I looked I saw exciting adventures, to be discovered. My friends and I would not only play war but we often acted out our favorite TV shows and movies. Among these were Airwolf, V, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. In 6th grade, a teacher named Mrs. Scott wanted us to write a scary short story for Halloween. This was a writing contest and the winners from each class would get their stories published in the local paper. Writing one of my stories down wasn’t something that I had ever thought of doing. So, for the first time, I used my wild imagination to write a story about my best friend and me encountering a vampire in a cemetery. I turned it in, with a little bit of pride but didn’t think too much of it. To my surprise, I won the contest. Mrs. Scott loved my story and encouraged me to keep writing. It was the first time in my life, I felt like I had done something to be proud of. I dabbled at it for a while but without someone to keep me motivated, I soon stopped.

In my early twenties, now a father and no longer burning up the roads with my friends, I found that my overactive imagination was still there. Since I always had a great love of superheroes, that is what I focused on. I started creating comic book characters and writing backstories for them. My kids loved hearing all about them and the powers that they had. I continued this for years, hoping to see them published, but after almost two decades, it never happened. By this point, I was starting to give serious consideration to writing books. This was due partly to the ability to self-publish and several friends suggesting it might be less complex than creating a comic book. One day I was talking to a friend and telling him all about the characters. He thought I had great ideas but superheroes weren’t his thing. Luckily, I had other ideas that weren’t comic book-related. I pitched those to him and we decided to co-author a book. That team up, along with another continued for three books. After that, my co-authors found themselves with busy lives and not much free time to write, so I continued solo. It’s been challenging on my own but even more rewarding when I see those 5-star reviews and know that someone enjoyed it. I love creating stories and my brain never shuts off. I plan to continue writing and creating new stories and characters. I also hope that someday I can help others with their dreams of becoming published authors.