Writing published in nightFire, Mesquite, Caprock Sun, Midwest Poetry Review, International Journal on World Peace, and many other publications.

During my teen years, I wrote several science fiction and fantasy stories. Most of those got lost during moves, but one of them grew into the science fiction novel Degranon and another grew into the fantasy novel The Return of Innocence. Their fruition would take more than two decades, though. At age 19, I moved from Louisiana to Nashville, Tennessee, where I began my studies at Belmont College (now Belmont University). Though I occasionally found time to work on my two unfinished novels, I mostly focused on poems (including song lyrics), nonfiction, and short stories. A major in English and a minor in journalism meant constant writing, which I treasured!

Next, I moved to Abilene, Texas, to pursue my master’s degree in English at Hardin-Simmons University. I arrived with a draft of Degranon that I considered publishable. In my creative writing classes, I continued writing poetry and short stories. Those stories, and revised versions of some I wrote or started in Nashville, soon found a definite setting—a West Texas town that I named “Acorn.” Drafts of chapters from The Return of Innocence received mixed reviews from my classmates, though; the sketchiness and underdeveloped chapters marred the grand adventure that I envisioned.

At Texas Tech University (here in Lubbock, Texas), I found little time for either novel, though I kept trying to find a publisher for Degranon. Working on a Ph.D. in English, while teaching classes, meant no novels. Still, I kept working on my Acorn stories, in and between creative writing classes. In fact, I started envisioning them as a possible collection.

When I mentioned my ideas for that emerging volume to a friend, she said it sounded like Sherwood Anderson’s book Winesburg, Ohio. Though I thought nothing of it at the time, I would eventually read and write about that classic story cycle for a class. The resulting paper evolved into my doctoral dissertation, and Winesburg, Ohio became one of numerous influences on The Acorn Stories.

At the same time, changes in my life began affecting my writing. After a lifetime of denial, I finally began to accept my homosexuality—a process made even more difficult by my religious fundamentalist background and mindset. Numerous essays and poems rose from my inner conflicts. Much of that writing, along with some of my earlier works, would later become my book Holding Me Together.

With my Ph.D. complete, I soon published Degranon, The Acorn Stories, Holding Me Together, and my dissertation in e-book form. That venture went nowhere, but the e-books caught the attention of the print-on-demand publisher that later became iUniverse. Over the next few years, I revised those books, and iUniverse released them into print.

TROI, however, remained unfinished, still a sketchy jumble of drafts and notes with enormous potential. I eventually considered the possibility of co-writing it with a fantasy author. When I mentioned the idea to my friend Toni Davis, she decided to read through some of the chapters and quickly fell in love with my fantasy world of Theln. Toni mostly wrote poetry and fan fiction back then but wanted to explore new characters.

Toni brought new life to a long-neglected project by interjecting ideas, fleshing out characters, and exposing flaws. Unfortunately, work and her own projects would keep her away from TROI for the next couple of years.

During that lull, I used my writing to confront another issue that impacted my life, cancer. With many of my readers asking for a sequel or spin-off to The Acorn Stories, and with my desire to organize some kind of cancer fund-raiser, The Acorn Gathering: Writers Uniting Against Cancer emerged. Five other writers contributed stories, set in Acorn or elsewhere, and I arranged for iUniverse to donate all of that book’s royalties to the American Cancer Society.

Next, I wrote a revised, second edition of Degranon that further explored the gay themes that surfaced in previous incarnations of that novel. Still, one unfinished project remained. Merging my drafts, notes, and ideas with Toni’s, I constructed a complete draft of TROI.

I eventually finished The Return of Innocence. Next, a sequel to Degranon.

Readers can order my books at local or online bookstores; libraries or bookstores can order them at Ingram Books or Baker and Taylor.