I wrote my first stories and poems when I was about 6 or 7. I was always a daydreamer with a whole other layer of colorful reality right behind the “real world.” This head full of swirling ideas can be a bit of a bear when trying to sleep, but I’m an explorer and have had the pleasure of discovering whole new places and events, both in my writing, my art, and the trips to conventions to meet others with similar passions.

Like everything else in my creative life, no one genre or style can satisfy me. I can’t imagine doing the same thing over and over again — that’s why day jobs suck so much. For each genre I work with, I have done extensive reading, had my favorite authors and influences, and have a fair grasp of the long history of each tradition. The genres I work with most are sci-fi, suspense, horror, slipstream, surreal, with an occasional bit of fantasy. Among the more modern aesthetics, I find that a lot of my work would now fall under dreamcore or weirdcore. You would think I would write more fantasy after all my years of playing D&D, but they are few and far between. When I do write fantasy, it’s more mythic than high fantasy or sword & sorcery. These days, I’m more likely to write quirky, somewhat comical pieces than anything violent or romantic.

On many occasions, I just rage about how many ridiculous categories (genres) there are. And people keep making more little niches to narrow down their interests.

My first story to be published was “The Twist” in Not One of Use #1, back in September 1986, so I’m coming up on the 40th anniversary.

Cool milestones: in 1997 I wrote my 200th story. And in 1999 I wrote my 500,000th word of short fiction. Half a million words, and my fingers are still going. The human body is quite a miraculous thing. You’d think I’d be tired by now.