I was born in California, lived an entire life in Las Vegas, and eventually moved to Portland, Oregon with a girlfriend many girlfriends ago. I’ve been in the PNW for about nineteen years now and call it home.

I’ve always been a bit of an entertainer, but storytelling is the recipe book I use most often. There were three ingredients that motivated me to write my first book. First was my introduction to running, a hobby that, while painful and arduous and not one I would ever recommend, afforded me some time away from my precious distractions. It allowed some space to let my brain latch onto something, and it just wound up being storytelling. Even now, when I find myself stuck on some detail or I hit a continuity snag, I can run on a problem and usually come out on the other side with an answer. Some of my favorite ideas and story beats have come to me while on a run. Which is to say, now I have to do it forever.

Second, was D&D, which is probably no surprise. The pandemic sentenced me to a lot of free time, and so I started writing silly campaigns for my people. Eventually, I made the leap to a proper book when I wondered what the story would look like without any chaotic meddling.

The third thing is drugs.

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Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

I was lucky enough to have an ah-ha moment early on when deciding on a name. My book centers on the issue of trust, how hard it is to earn back once it’s been broken, and what it does to people once it’s been lost. That is not to say there isn’t a pile of rejects on the cutting room floor. In the earliest drafts, it was going to be named after one of the main characters, Blanket. But more and more, the story drifted away from her perspective, so “Blanket and the Such and Such” made less sense. Vagrants making promises, however, survived all the drafts.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

I think “surreal” is the best word for it. Writing has always felt like this thing I did in the corner when no one was looking. Very personal and very private. Then a cover designer is attached, and suddenly, a stranger to the world I’m making is putting their artistic stamp on it, which was absolutely terrifying. The stakes felt immense, overwhelming sometimes, now that other people were behind this project, adding their effort to it.

Then, I see the cover, and it rocks. The book feels more alive than ever and the momentum picks up. Soon enough, it’s looking up at me from the coffee table. Surreal.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

Bad writing actually motivates me to write way more than good writing ever has. It makes me think I have a decent chance to write a bestseller, whether or not that’s true. “If ‘xyz’ is so popular, then I have a legitimate shot at making a name for myself.”

And, honestly, the opposite is also true. I’ll read a passage or a chapter that totally captivates me, and think, “Well, no point in trying to beat that. Time to hang ’em up.”

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is an excellent example. There’s a lot of prose in there that’ll ward me off Word documents for a week because it’s beautiful.

Shout out to bad writing—it allows us in the middle to eat.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve worked at the same company for just over seventeen years now. It’s a produce wholesaler where my first position was building pallets (lifting things up and putting them down) on the night shift—fast forward to today and I’m on the sales team, working with some of the most passionate and capable people I’ve ever met. They all also showed up in a big way for my launch.

Before then, I had a few odd jobs. Dog daycare. Pet shop. Holiday Inn Express. I lost the hotel gig when I left without notice for a couple of weeks to visit a friend out of town. When I came back, they said I was fired. They said they threw away my Gameboy DS from my locker, too. I try to avoid staying at Holiday Inn Expresses if at all possible.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

With absolute certainty, I can say the reception from my community was the most meaningful. My close friends and family giving encouragement is one thing (and I’m forever grateful), but the people who I have just an ancillary connection to showed me a kind of support I was not expecting. Whether or not the book is good (and it just might be!), I’m humbled by how my community came together.

When I strike it rich, I will very likely remember you all.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

As mentioned before, I’m a D&D guy, and needle drops are a big part of my presentation and style. So, many of the action sequences in the book have an associated needle drop when I see it playing out in my head.

For instance, toward the end of the book, there’s a scene that pairs with “19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)” by the Gorillaz. In a universe where some high-level executive catches wind of my book and pushes it through the development pipeline, I have a list of tracks for them to consider. They’ll not be annoyed by that at all!

Not for nothing, I can’t listen to music with lyrics while I write, so I relied on soundtracks and scores to get through the meat of the book. Final Fantasy X is probably the most prominent among those OSTs (and a big nostalgia bomb). Big ups to Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, and Junya Nakano.

What creative projects are you currently working on?

I’m writing book number two now! It’s a lot more ambitious than the first, and the scale is much larger. It also means it’s more complicated and needs a different, more involved kind of attention. I’m still in the early phases, but the bones of the story are there. I keep telling people, “I’m in the skin now.”

I’m terrible at ETAs, as many of the people I’ve spoken to about The Vagrant Promises over the years can attest, but it’ll hopefully come out before the doomsday clock strikes midnight. It’s not a sequel, but there will be a couple of cameos.

How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?

There was a polish that my book was lacking, and Atmosphere helped me get it to a place I can be proud of. The developmental sessions were incredibly insightful, and it was some of the most constructive feedback I’ve received during the making of The Vagrant Promises. The cover art came out great. The proofreading and copyedits were extremely thorough. Extremely happy with the end result.

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