Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Out of high school, I joined the US Marines and served just post Viet Nam as a Military Policeman. Nothing in my life has touched me or changed me as much as those four years learning about honor and discipline.
After my service, Uncle Sugar was nice enough to subsidize four years of university and a BFA. Even while still in college I began my career as an illustrator working primarily in the role-playing game field. My early work included the Star Trek and Dr. Who role playing games for FASA, and lead to a long run on titles like Battle-Tech, the DC Universe Role Playing Game, Chill, Traveller and much more.
Later I founded Starchilde Studios where I created, wrote and published the game Justifiers RPG. Moving to New York to pursue work in comics, I wrote and drew for Valiant Comics at the height of their popularity. Additional work came my way from Marvel, Milestone/DC Comics, and Image. After leaving Valiant, I started Comicolor, one of the first digital coloring and lettering companies for comic books in North America.
I currently live and work in Kalamazoo, Michigan with my wife Betsy and daughter Caitlin who are also my editors and collaborators. I have three other grown children; Donald, Erin and Rose.
Cliff Notes:
I like to skydive. Celebrities who’ve jumped out of perfectly good planes include Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ryan Reynolds, and Vince Vaughn.
I have two different colored eyes — it’s called heterochromia and on my military ID card my eye color was listed as “hetero”. About 1 in 100,000 people have it. I live in a county with approximately 100,000 people, so it’s likely I’m the only hetero in Kalamazoo County. Other famous heteros include Henry Cavill, Jane Seymour, Simon Pegg, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Walken, and Mila Kunis.
I was born on Boxing Day — I missed Christmas by about 15-minutes. Other famous almost Christmas babies include Kit Harrington, Jared Leto, Mao Tse-tung, Steve Allen, David Sedaris and Henry Miller.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Orion the Hunter: The Spiral Arm Stories Season One
It’s a series of stories featuring Geos Ah’rion Rassas rel Pen’atha, the half-breed man tracker and Federation marshal known as Orion the Hunter. It includes six short stories and a full length novel that range from courtroom dramas to space westerns.
My main influences are Star Trek and Firefly. I’m a huge fan of both. Also films like Bad Day at Black Rock. A stranger comes to town and starts digging up all the dirty little secrets… hilarity ensues. High Plains Drifter is another inspiration, and comics I’ve worked on like Magnus Robot Fighter and Flash Gordon.Also, movies where the hero is a villain like Get Carter and The Limey. Bad bad people doing bad bad things to bad bad people.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tend not to write sequentially, I don’t know if this is odd or not. Scenes come to me, and not necessarily in order and I write them as I get them, building the bridging sequences as needed. Also, since I’m an illustrator as well, I frequently start off my story by doing the chapter illustration I’ll be using when the book is done. The illustration often informs story elements, sometimes in surprising ways. I also often do character studies for the main characters and aliens, to help me crystalize their descriptions.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Andre Norton’s books, which so often seemed to feature outsiders, half-breeds and loners. I read these in high school and fell in love with her universe. The idea of broken people as heroes, finding their place in the world touched me deeply. I grew up as a Navy brat and we moved every two years as I grew up. I was frequently an outsider at school and in whatever new housing arrangements we had.
Harry Harrison is another huge influence. Same thing with villainous heroes (or heroic villains?). Also because he started out writing and drawing comics and became a hugely successful scifi author. I want to have his trajectory.
A bunch of others; Leigh Bracket, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Isaac Asimov. Also Robert Bloch, Earl Stanley Gardener, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Seabury Quinn.
What are you working on now?
My latest book just released on Amazon and I’m getting ready to put it through Ingram as well. Lots of promotion and marketing stuff, but I’m also working on the first Orion the Hunter Season Two. It’s the anchor story in the book, so it’s more of a novella or novel than a short story. It’s a lot more world-building as well, since most of that story takes place on Orion’s mother’s homeworld. Orion and his partner get assigned to close protection for the Federation Ambassador to the Imperial Court; who is also the father Orion has never met. There’s still a lot of stabby-stabby shoot-em up in this story, but it also has a lot of backstabbing and political jostling.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
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