I am the author of The Deeper Dark and A River in the Ocean.
I have also written the children’s book When You Miss Me.
I was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was raised between Virginia and Maryland. Manassas is the first place I can remember in Virginia, but I’ve also lived in Fairfax, Warrenton, and Fredericksburg, where the setting for A River in the Ocean is right along the Rappahannock River.
In Maryland, I have lived mainly in Cumberland, but I did a bit in Baltimore. That was back when I was a Correctional Officer at the Maryland House of Corrections.
At 18, after graduating from James Monroe in Fredericksburg, I joined the Marine Corps. I served from 1988 to 1993 and was Honorably Discharged as a Corporal. That’s when I decided to put myself through college.
I did two years at Allegany Community College, a college now known as Allegany College. Then, I earned my Bachelor’s at Frostburg State University in English with an education supplement. I taught English at Northern High School for three years.
A year into teaching, I was offered a book deal, and that changed my life forever. I was born a writer. The first poem I ever wrote was when I was six called “Slick Move.” It was about people slipping on bananas and oil slicks because they couldn’t watch where they were going. I was born to be a writer, and now, here I am. Doing what I was born to do.