Frequently Asked Questions

Hi there!

As this site grows, I'll be adding to this page. Right now, it's brand new, so there aren't many FAQs. I'll start you off with one, though, and you can always email or comment with a question you want answered.

How do you get your ideas?

Dammed if I know. Seriously. I do know how two books originated: The Cassidy Chronicles and Godsfall: The Book of One. With the Chronicles, I woke up and had the first chapter in my head, the wedding scene, so I wrote it out. Once I had, I realized I needed to know more about the people in the scene, so I started imagining their histories. It went off the rails from there. For Godsfall, it was a similar process. I wrote a 1500-word flash fiction for an anthology (which was declined), and the reason was that there was too much left unsaid. I realized the editor was right, and set about giving all the details that didn't make it in. 225,000 words later? Godsfall 1 through 3.

Why do you have so many LGBTQ+ characters?

That's who they are.

I started writing what would become "The Cassidy Chronicles" in 2012. It began with the scene in chapter 1, almost verbatim to this day, and it was a triad wedding: Aiyana, Kendra, and Derek. That's who they were - and Aiyana and Kendra had a romance that went back to their earliest years. Their story was naturally about a poly relationship.

But that's just one story. The Artemis War books centered on Cass and Ken, and they naturally attracted like-minded people to them to share the dream. 

When I finally realized that I was writing hopepunk, with an optimistic view of the future, it naturally included people in all genders and sexualities. Is that political? If you want to make it that way. I prefer to view it as a natural evolution of acceptance and inclusivity.

I'm an ally - not perfect, certainly prone to missteps, but I believe that how people choose to express their love - and who they choose to be with - is their choice, not mine, and I have no place in taking their choice away from them. (And I'm not talking about minors here so before a troll pops up and tries to twist what I say...)

Anyway, that's who they are, and that's who I write.