Tell us about yourself:
"Based in Seattle, I’m your basic boy-next-door type, turned do-gooder and family man with a somewhat closeted, often repressed writing hobby. I’ve been educating and writing-coaching teenagers with special challenges since about 2008 and I’m not even 40 yet! Outside of my college’s student lit mag, my first publication was a short story in 2012; since, I’ve published over 125 pieces including book reviews, author interviews, poems, short stories, CNF and three books: THE WILD FAMILIAR short stories (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024); the poetry collection JACK OF ALL…(New Meridian Arts, 2024); and WHISTLE PUNK FALLS (Street Legal Cinema, September, 2026). When I’m not writing, I’m teaching ESL and ELA to immigrants and refugees at Evergreen, a Title 1 public high school in White Center (aka Rat City), a neighborhood in South Seattle. This is a deeply political, over-full time job that I love with all my heart and soul which never the less saps just about everything I’ve got from mid August to mid June. I get paid pretty darned well actually (thank you, Teacher’s Union!), get inspired by, loved on and respected by my amazing students from all around the world, and an opportunity to quietly resist the neo-fascist Christian Nationalism goose-stepping around the empire. I’m also a dad of an adorable and talented eight-year-old with special needs, a husband to a wonderful, driven, wicked-smart wife of 15 years, and a somewhat weary and sheepish Church attendee. All of that to say is, I’m usually not writing. I also enjoy drinking coffee and alcohol way too much."
When do you typically write?
"As a typical millennial, I’m still growing up and don’t yet have a routine. Last week, I woke up around 3am and wrote for 2 hours; but like most routines of mine, this only lasted about 3 nights in a row. Last year—my seventh and easiest year teaching ever—I followed my wife’s advice and started writing every Saturday for 3-4 hours. This lasted until late May when things got end-of-the-year wild and stress-grading took over. This year (26-27), I’m teaching a new course, so while I am going to try to keep up the Saturday thing, I’m not sure I’ll be able to while staying sane and caring for my students the way they deserve. Wish I could wake up at 4am like Toni Morrison, but I love/need sleep and don’t want to have a sleep-deprivation-related melt down at work, which I did once a year, or more, during my 30s—one of which leading to me having to resign from a dream job, that was alternately a nightmare so, it’s all good. Getting back on topic (adult ADHD much?), the shame of me not writing much is that because I’m typing this during the summer and I’ve been writing almost daily, I’m two chapters into a domestic thriller I think has real potential and have another chapter started on a cyberpunk novel, I’m also excited about. Maybe I could just write a half hour a night instead of watching Seth Meyers or Cinema Sins!"
What three authors are on your bookshelf right now?
"I just finished TREE OF SMOKE and JESUS’ SON by Dennis Johnson and he’s worth all the literary hype he gets and deserves a great deal more. As a Christian-adjacent gritty writer, I’m enthralled and can’t wait to read more.
"But also, I’m finishing RED SCARE by Clay Risen; starting THE HERITAGE: BLACK ATHLETES, A DIVIDED AMERICA AND THE POLITICS OF PATRIOTISM by However Bryant; plugging away at OTHELLO, which I plan on teaching to my 3rd year ESL students this year (wish my luck!); and… Whoops, that’s more than 3!"
What is the most challenging part of your creative process at the moment?
"In addition to the above no-time woes, there’s also the constant and nagging concern of the zero-audience factor. Outside of close friends and family, nobody’s reading my work and so as I’m tinkering and crafting sentences and plot and motifs and themes, I’m aware that this is all me painting in a cave. But as the archeological record conveys, that’s what we humans do. Still, I’m tempted to go back to music (I sing and play bass guitar); I really miss it and that’s something I could do that’s more social and could provide more immediate enjoyment to more people, as everybody listens to music while I feel like nobody reads."
What part of the craft gives you the most enjoyment?
"The surprise of uncovering character and plot and detail during the actual writing.
The joy of executing an idea onto paper, even as I watch it take its own shape."
If you could get into a time machine and go back to an earlier version of yourself, what is one piece of advice you would give to yourself on writing?
"Hey, late-20s grad-school me, why don’t you listen to your wife and not read every fucking thing your profs are assigning you? Could you maybe write a little less on those dumbass essays and be okay with a B or maybe even a C? You are missing out on writing!
"Early 30s stay-at-home dad me, you know all that time you’re spending writing reviews and essays while your son is in daycare? Yeah, stop. What’s the plan? You’re not getting paid. No one is going to read those, even the people publishing them! And you are hiding from your writing! Cut it out, put on your big-boy-britches and get some shit written. Even if it sucks—and the first draft of anything always sucks—at least it will be yours! You will NEVER get these years back so make them yours while you can."
What projects are you currently working on, if any?
"A domestic-thriller / murder mystery set in a fictional Seattle-like metropolis in the near future.
"A cyberpunk AI nightmare novel set in the same universe a few years later in which god-like AI robots are alternately befriending and killing us.
"A second poetry collection."
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
"I like exercising (biking and running and sit-ups), eating delicious food—often made by ME!—traveling, watching movies, particularly spy thrillers (Slow Horses is my jam!); checking out new bands, going to shows, and fantasizing about myself in an alternative universe as a rock god while in real life I’m actually just killing my brain cells with lmfao-level memes and chatting with friends on Instagram.
"Oh, and I also host an annual literary arts reading called SHADOW WORK WRITERS, dedicated to offering a platform for emerging artists that embrace their Jungian shadows."
Give 2 truths and a lie:
"When I go to shows I dance my ass off like I’m on drugs.
"My favorite anime is Ghost in the Shell.
"My favorite novel is UNDERWORLD by Don Delillo."
Which is the lie?
"My favorite anime is actually Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence."
