Where do you get your ideas?

Like so many good writers, I have a lot of ideas, and I couldn't tell you where most of them came from! My problem has always been that I have great ideas for settings, but setting alone isn't enough. You have to have good characters and, more importantly, an interesting story for those characters. Many of my best ideas are really nothing more than settings waiting on characters to come along and have something happen to them.

How long did it take you to write Across the Western Gray?

The initial story came into my head more or less intact over the matter of a few brainstorming sessions. The book itself took a long time to write. I couldn't figure out how to start it -- in fact, I wrote about six chapters with a completely different beginning before I scrapped the whole thing and started over! That beginning started at Thom's inn in Trafton, and would have added probably at least 100 pages to the story just getting him to the capital. I realized that there was no adventure or action with all that, so I skipped ahead and started over.

Once I did that, the first draft was probably the work of about six months or so, give or take. But then the book spent years in revision hell before I finally decided to publish it.

Do you think being an English teacher helps or hurts your ability to write a good story?

It's a bit of both, really. Being an English teacher means I have read a lot of great literature, and you can't be a good writer if you don't know what makes literature great. Like Stephen King said, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

But I think also so many teachers get caught up in the "correct" way to write that they often forget that there is no "correct" way to do it, ultimately. It's so easy to get bogged down in details instead of just telling a good story!

Do you have a sequel in mind for Western Gray?

Yes, I do! But we'll have to wait and see if that takes shape or not. There are so many other stories to tell. Speaking of which ...

What's next?

I'm putting the finishing touches on my next novel and hope that it will be out sometime in the beginning of 2026. In addition to that, I have quite a few stories I'm in the process of developing. Stay tuned here for more information!