Hello
I've always known I wanted to write. I started creating short narratives using stuffed animals as puppets when I was very young. I used my active imagination to create games and scenarios with my siblings and friends growing up. Mythology and fantasy fascinated--and still fascinate--me, so when I began to write, that's what flowed out onto the page. I'm grateful to now be able to try to share the imagination I have with the world. Thanks for joining me on this journey!
Get to know me
I grew up in a large city in the mountains of Peru as the son of Christian missionaries. My dad, in turn, was the son of Christian missionaries to Central America. Most of my education through high school was in Spanish, which means that, to this day, I have to think hard about certain terms in English. This clash of cultures left me feeling like I wasn’t fully a part of either of them and sent me seeking for a place I could fully belong.
I was an avid reader as a child and devoured C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit by the time I was 11. Additionally, I read as much as I could in order to explore as many perspectives on the world as I could, perhaps to understand how I fit into the whole thing. By age 14 I was building a world that I still tinker with to this day, crafting characters, history, languages, and cultures. At Wheaton College I pursued a degree in Media Communications instead of writing, convinced it was more marketable, though I retained my involvement in fantasy literature by being a founding member and later President of the Wheaton College Tolkien Society. I then pursued a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, now convinced I would continue into academia. I ended up teaching high school for five years, where I also founded and sponsored a lunch club for students who shared my love for fantasy. As a result, my desire to pursue writing fantasy returned and grew to the point I knew I wanted to make it my career.
When my family began to grow, my desire to create and share stories with them grew commensurately. In 2025 I drafted a complete, full-length fantasy novel for the first time; it was exhilarating! To help me grow further as a writer, I created an online writing group with a number of other aspiring writers. The group stimulated further production from me as I completed a full draft of a new story that year. Since then, ideas for additional stories have kept flowing into my mind and I have made writing a priority. Both those drafts are out for consideration by literary agents right now.
With the birth of my first son, I became a stay-at-home dad. I now have three sons, and finding time to write in this season has been a formidable opportunity for growth, but I know I am right where I belong.