(Don't worry, this extended edition is shorter than that of The Return of the King)

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(But I like that movie, you say)

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(Me too, but anyway, about me...)

In third grade, I wrote my first story. It was called Adventure Island, and it detailed the journey of two sons and two fathers...um...adventuring while stranded on a magical island. After an epic sword battle against a t-rex, an allosaurus, and two velociraptors (during which no one came to harm), our heroes escaped the island on a totally functional, totally already-fueled, totally there-all-along airplane (not deus ex machina, I swear). They subsequently flew home and decided to never tell their mothers or wives what had happened.

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I like to think I've improved since then.

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The story won runner-up in my school's annual story contest. Lost to some big-shot fifth grader. Still bitter about that.

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But hey, it beat my brother.

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Growing up in Chicago, I read Tolkien and Jacques and Rowling, among others, but when the time came to choose a major for college, I chose mechanical engineering.

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Huh?

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Yup. After a semester, I switched to Earth Science. Then I switched again, and after that, again--this time, finally, to English.

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Here is a defining moment: I am sitting in the library at the University of Minnesota, slogging my way through a calculus problem set, when BOOM, an image strikes my mind. I pause for a moment, considering. Then I put down my pencil, I push aside the calculus, and I pull open Microsoft Word.

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Since then, I've known what I want to do with my life. I rediscovered stories, and in college I read some of my favorites: His Dark Materials, The Hyperion Cantos, The Silmarillion, Dune, and even The Sound and the Fury and Macbeth. Post-college, there were more: The Once and Future King, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Broken Earth Trilogy, The Road, among so many others. And I delight to know there are always more to come.

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I acquired an agent with the first novel I completed, but even then, after giving the story itself heavy consideration, I decided that I wanted to keep that novel as a trunk novel. I knew I could write a stronger debut. The agent and I had to go our separate ways, but all in all it was a positive experience for me. As for that novel, I am proud of it, and forever grateful of what it taught me about writing--and about myself.

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So here I am, a young dude who loves writing, back in the querying trenches, searching for an agent who cares, an editor who loves my work, and that next new idea that will plunge me into the depths of a new story.

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And this is the part where Frodo finally leaves Middle-earth (spoiler) and our loyal Samwise is walking home to his new family--aka, the end of the bio.

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Thanks for reading.