How long have you been writing?
Since I was six or so. The first story I remember writing, drawn in crayon, involved a band of space mercenary penguins. I’ve been published the last four years.
Which writers inspire you?
There are too many to list, but some of the biggest influences on my writings are Larry Correia, David Weber, Jack Campbell, Charles Dickens, Patricia Briggs, Naoko Takeuchi, and Hiromu Arakawa.
So, what have you written?
My main series is the Black Chronicles, with two books out, the first being ‘The Long Black’. It is ‘blue collar space opera’ about a teenage girl smuggling herself off her oppressive homeworld and lying about her age so she can become a starship mechanic in order to see the galaxy and make something of herself… while running into such trivial problems as space pirates, street gangs, breaking ships, and revolutionary assassins. Apart from that I just put out my fifth novel a few weeks ago, something of an homage to Sailor Moon that draws its setting from Dutch mythology and history, along with a fairly hefty dose of my own feelings on what it means to have faith, though being a fantasy work it is not tied to any real-world religion. Before that I published a (clean) romantic suspense novel called Armored Heart. It was supposed to be a straight action piece involving superheroes, transhumanism vs humanistic viewpoints, and a bit of speculation on the future of prosthetics, but the characters got away from me and insisted the romance angle become just as important as the superpowered punches to evil-doer faces. And finally, I have a steampunk novel out about an accidentally-sentient police spy/sex bot being sent undercover to unmask the city’s vigilante hero, and in the process trying to break free once she learns what that even means.
What draws you to Superversive writing?
In a word? Optimism. There are plenty of evil, dark things in the world, but where I think modern ‘realistic’ stories fail to actually be realistic is that they think that is all there is. In fact, I would argue they are less realistic than an unabashed story of good triumphing over evil, because the one revels in the dark and denies the light, while the other shows that both exist but revels in that which is good. Or, to paraphrase someone a tad smarter than I, G.K. Chesterton, Fairy Tales do not tell the child that evil exists, he knows that already. Fairy Tales tell the child that evil can be beaten.
What are you working on at the minute?
I have the first draft of The Black Chronicles book three finished, and once that is out I’ll be diving immediately into book four, since the events in four follow on directly from three, though not with a cliff-hanger. I also have a somewhat silly short novel about teen girls piloting giant robots and fighting against genetically engineered wolves in other giant robots nearly finished.
Do you read much and if so who are your favorite authors.
I don’t read nearly as much as I used to, more because of the time involved in parenting and my day job than because of my own writing, but I still try to get at least a few books in each month. The stuff I come back to, rereading multiple times, includes Jack Campbell’s ‘The Lost Fleet’, David Weber’s ‘Honor Harrington, and ‘Grimnoir’ by Larry Correia. The book I reread most, however, at least once a year, is Charles Dicken’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’. I first read that book in my senior year English class, and I’ve read it at least once a year since. Now, besides those, some of the best books I read for pure enjoyment are things like David L. Burkhead’s novels, which range from hard SF to ‘desk weenie plucked off Earth to save a fantasy kingdom’, T.L. Knighton’s SF books that would fit right at home with Mal Reynolds and the crew of the Serenity, and any of the Warhammer 40k books starring the Adepta Sororitas. (What can I say, I really love the nuns with guns, especially the faith in SF aspect of it, which is sadly rare.)
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
I’m not the loudest guy on social media and whatnot, but all my novels can be found easily on Amazon, where they are all available in ebook, Kindle Unlimited, or paperback. (Except Armored Heart. Waiting on a new cover before I put that one out in paperback.)
The Helicon Society 