Being born in an Air Force family means never having to say, “Happy fourth anniversary!” We moved around a lot, but finally settled in Texas when I was eleven. That was quite a change of pace. Schooling went from intensive and hands on to kinda slow and laid back. There were opportunities to excel, I see now, but back then- well, everything just ground to a halt.

I guess it was 1985 when my older brother bought the D&D basic set and thrust me into the role of Dungeon Master. He and his friends would all get together and dictate what kinds of monsters they were to encounter- what kinds of damsels in distress they were to save. We'd spend our allowances on modules and Dragon Magazines. Did we ever run through even one? I don't think so. We just collected, really. Even then, I much preferred coming up with my own stories. (But, they were more about giant robots and Sci-Fi notions)

Stories, daydreams and flights of fancy had always occupied my free time. They just had no real structure before D&D. I'd run through the woods for hours every day, hunting for any sign of Smurfs or rats from NIMH, or Robin Hood as a fox. Anything, really, to whisk me away from the day in, day out grind of the mundane world. I thought moving to Germany in the 80's would herald in a new era of magic- I'd escape this planet and all of its- well, that's between me and my shrink. Heh heh.

It was during my senior year of high school that I started writing my first manuscript. I finished it the following summer. Wrote the whole darn thing on an Amiga 500. Edited the whole thing with a red pen, and had just gotten all of those edits re-entered when my computer died. And, I mean died- whole bottle of Elmer's Glue in the motherboard .. died..

That was, what, 1993? Yeah. Anyway, fast forward over a decade. 2006- a buddy of mine invited me to participate in NaNoWriMo. Now, By this time, I really really wanted to be a novelist, but could never get past chapter three. Well, I figured some structure might help me out. So, I joined up.

Now, in case you don't know, the point of NaNoWriMo (the National Novel Writing Month) is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Sounds crazy, I know, but it's very, very doable- especially if you're a recluse and a wallflower. Who'da thought that writing could be a social thing? But, it brought me out of my shell a bit. I made some friends and had a blast.

Well, the novel that came from 2k6's NaNo was All Star Boar Band, which I'm gonna' podcast pretty soon and put up on one of the P.O.D. sites. The second in the same series, Accidental Activists came out of the 2007 NaNo and is currently in the editing phase.

So there you have it. That's who I am.