Represented by Bonnie Swanson at The Purcell Agency
2/23/2021 – My path to becoming a writer is probably not typical. I am a chemical engineer by training and have been working in manufacturing for the past twenty years.
I was ten when I discovered the joy of escaping into worlds created by science fiction and fantasy authors. There was little to do in rural Arkansas where I grew up, and when I wasn’t riding my horse, I was reading every piece of fiction I could get my hands on.
My lifelong proclivity to daydream also started when I was young. I remember looking forward to going to bed because I could lie awake and imagine different worlds and fantastical stories. To this day, I don’t need the radio on while driving to work. I’m too busy thinking about something cool.
When my daughter was sixteen, she suggested—repeatedly—that I write a book. Amazingly, even though I have read hundreds of fantasy books and spent countless hours dreaming up worlds, characters, and magic systems, it never occurred to me to write down any of my stories.
At the time my daughter started pestering me to write, I had a massive space opera rolling around in my head. One night while we were out eating crab (kinda our thing), I told her about my storyline. It was a complex tale that included a unique take on time travel and characters that interacted with the protagonist from multiple timelines. I remember her telling me, “Dad, that’s way too complex for a first novel.” After some arguing, she convinced me to write a fantasy book, and maybe someday, I could write my big space opera.
Silversmith was the resulting novel, but the world of Silversmith refused to stay small and became every bit as complex as my space opera. I couldn’t contain the magic system, world-building, and characters within a single book. Silversmith has become the first book in an epic fantasy series of at least seven novels and is still growing. (In my head, at least)
After getting started on Silversmith, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed writing. I was dealing with insane amounts of stress in my work life, and I found that when I wrote my story, it provided the same type of escape as reading. I loved immersing myself in the work of putting the story down on proverbial paper.
The stress of being a Plant Manager continued to grow and was nearly killing me when I became unemployed during the early days of the COVID pandemic. The relief at not having to manage a plant anymore was almost visceral. Sometimes you don’t realize the stress of a situation until it ends. With what felt like a literal weight being lifted, I decided I wanted to do something different.
After twenty years as an engineer and managing several manufacturing facilities, I would make a go at being a novelist. I worked hard to improve my skills through online courses and by studying books on writing and grammar. I then got professional editing help as I revised multiple drafts of Silversmith. I am proud of the result and look forward to sharing it with others.
