About Me
Greetings, squidling, ‘tis I : a madman.
I write weird fiction. By which I mean I work across the genres of Contemporary Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Crime, and plain old capital-W Weird fiction-- often compounded into esoteric combinations and often accompanied by elements of traditional, “realistic” literature. Like many other modern writers, I practice my craft with little regard to the separations between genres...but also like many other modern writers, I am keenly aware of the importance of genre conventions in helping readers find books that interest them.
So let me put this another way.
I write stories about traumatized people struggling to do their best in a dark fantasy/horror setting grounded in the real world and featuring technology that primarily already exists or is in deep development. My characters tend to be down-at-heels and desperate, incredibly flawed but trying to improve. They clash with plotlines that avid horror and crime fiction readers will find familiar, complicated by foibles and internal conflicts recognizable to all of us. Sometimes they have special abilities, magickal resources, or paranormal powers...and sometimes they’re just normal, mundane people tossed into situations far beyond their capabilities.
As a previously homeless person, homelessness and financial despair do show up in my work. As a person dealing with depression, anxiety, and extreme ADHD, mental illness is also a common theme. As a recovering alcoholic who has dabbled in numerous other substances, addiction and drug/substance use also usually show up.
The Who and the Where
I exist, physically, in Fairport, NY. I live with my absolutely superlative feline Peach (aka lil Screm). I spend most of my time writing, reading, playing video games, and doing survival jobs to support my terrible vices (writing, reading, playing video games.)
I exist, digitally, in a sprawling network of social media accounts, a Patreon page, and in avatar-form in several video games.
I also exist, digitally, through my work. Have I already mentioned Patreon?
Mentally, my existence further carries into numerous fictional realms; especially those writ out of the minds of Cassandra Khaw, Victor LaValle, William Gibson, Caitlin R Kiernan, Charlie Huston, N. K. Jemisin, etc… (My Goodreads page and my various reviews leave little doubt of who my favorite authors are.)
Let’s not further extrude all the metaphorical and conceptual rockiness of my existence. Suffice it to say: unprovably, I exist.
“…so, What’s Your Story, Then?”
I grew up in Rochester, NY where the sky above the city was the color of television tuned to a dead channel. I mean that to imply the static, blizzarding grayness of 1984’s Neuromancer, not the more modern bright-blues of today’s slender TVs.
I attended Monroe Community College and Alfred University, earning a degree in Psychology with an eye toward criminal pathology and a vibrant interest in the subjective flexibility of reality.
With a degree I had little intent of using, I hit New York City to begin a lifetime of scraping by. I lived in Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, Washington Heights, Woodside, and Astoria—all adding up to over 12 years of residence. During that span of time, I ended up homeless. Thanks to an incredibly generous network of friends and loved ones, I only “slept rough” for just over two weeks (across nine months of living “between apartments”). Buoyed by my community, I moved into a new apartment as a self-employed person and continued as such for the remainder of my time in NYC.
Following another eight years of up-and-down success, my business went under during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable, realistically, to continue living in the five boroughs without guaranteed post-pandemic income—and obviously not wanting to repeat my previous run-in with homelessness—I took what financial scraps I had left and returned to Rochester, where I now live in the suburb of Fairport.
A lot happened between those broad strokes, but that covers the basics.