About Me

I'm a writer.

That's what I do.


I've been writing my entire life. I didn't realize it at the time of course, but looking back on my years in school, language, spelling, vocabulary and creative writing always seemed to come naturally to me. They were the areas in which I not only seemed to do well, but to which I was naturally drawn as well.

The creative writing began in earnest during my junior year of high school. My English teacher Tim Williams assigned an inordinate amount of creative writing. To me, this was a blessing. It didn't feel like work. 

The following year, I began writing my first novel. Rather an ambitious project for a 17 year old. But I grew up reading Stephen King. Some fairly heavy and rather adult material. His books Carrie, Cujo, Firestarter, The Shining, Cat's Eye, and Christine were all the rage. So I watched the movies (one of my compulsions is film), and naturally read the books, which led to his other works.

After graduating from high school and beginning college, I had great fun in my first college-level English literature class. My essays were well received by my professor, and it wasn't long before I switched majors from Pre-Med to English Literature.

I got my B.A. degree in English Lit from University of the Pacific in 1996. Tasked with spending the next 8 years in a PhD program or going to film school to pursue screenwriting, I chose the latter. And in the summer of 1996, I moved to Hollywood to attend UCLA, where I studied screenwriting and independent producing by night and served popcorn and soda to celebrity actor folk at an art house movie theater by day.

After a few years, I began questioning the likelihood of having a stable career in show business and I reassessed my goals. I left Los Angeles and began working what turned out to be a series of jobs I did not particularly enjoy.

I had always been a total airplane and aviation nut so I shifted gears and attended a commercial flight school. There I earned my Private Pilot's license. I went on to get my Instrument Rating, multiengine rating, and commercial licenses. I could not know how instrumental aviation would prove to be in both theme and experience as it would later pertain to my work.

But then I acquiesced to the fact that the transient life of an airline pilot was going to be challenging for my wife Taliya and our family.

Thus, after much soul searching, in 2004, I returned to writing. I knew it was my calling. I decided to pursue it no matter what.

Shortly thereafter, the idea for The Go-Kids came to me in a dream. I spent the next several years writing, editing, re-writing, and perfecting it to the best of my ability.

I also began querying agents and publishers who were willing to look at unsolicited manuscripts from writers lacking representation. The score of rejection slips went into a binder, where I would look at them with pride. And determination.

Then the eBook/self-publishing phenomenon began to take off. I knew immediately that it was the correct path for me. The notion of selling my work to a publisher, in essence giving it away and having no control over it forever and ever was a sickening prospect.

To that extent, I assembled some short stories I had on my hard drive, penned several new ones, and assembled them into a collection which would eventually become The Pillow Book. This was the book I used to learn the ropes of self publishing. After a few months of a self-taught crash course, I liked the results. I immediately published The Go-Kids myself as well. I haven't looked back.

On September 9, 2009, I was blessed to marry the most amazing, beautiful, and talented woman in the world. Taliya is a brilliant singer/songwriter and guitar player. She has written, recorded, and produced three albums and has toured extensively through Europe and the United States. In 2005 she received an actual bona fide Guiness World Record for recording her original song "Flower Child" in 15 languages. Taliya and I currently reside in Palm Springs, California, where we are looking forward to welcoming our Schneider Babies into the world one day very soon!

My latest books are a science fiction love story titled Eye Candy and The Beginning - The Demon Drivers Trilogy Book 1. I have many other projects in the works as well.

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