| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | I remember going to the YMCA with a friend and his father. We were mainly there for swimming, but I wanted to cool off on the treadmill afterward. I was just walking along, when my friend's dad reached over and said, "You're hardly sweating!" and started to up the speed for me. He kept on raising the pace, and I kept up without issue. That's how I found out I had a knack for running! Joining the track club in high school led to me catching a recruiter's eye, and that led to me joining the Marines at 17. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | I identify most with my next oldest brother, certainly! He's a great man, a superb father, and he filled me with boundless curiosity and a love for technology. He was the quintessential nerd, and always had time to teach me how to get into the latest gadget. I don't think I'd have embraced digital artwork if it weren't for him, and that fascination blossomed into my entire civilian career. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | Empathy is an undervalued trait in my view. It implies a certain level of kindness and thoughtfulness you don't get from just being "nice". Having the compassion to imagine yourself in someone else's place, and the engrained curiosity to wonder about the world outside of yourself is a winning combination, and we could all benefit from more of it. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | My first publishing deal had a really fun start! I wrote a bit of fanfiction for a poppy sci-fi series I adored. It was a tiny thing, hardly worth mentioning, but I felt compelled to send the author the tale via Twitter Messaging, just to show him how inspiring his work was. He read it, shared it with his writing partner, and a few days later I got a response asking me to be part of a multi-author anthology for their setting! |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | The Caucasus would be a dream to explore. I fell in love with the area during my second deployment. The food, culture, and energy are like nowhere else in the world, even compared to neighboring regions. Georgia and Istanbul were beautiful and multicultural in a way completely alien to America. If we're a melting pot where cultures come to merge and coalesce, they're like a kintsugi vessel made of many distinct pieces that fit together beautifully. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | Curiosity is the best thing one can pass on, I think. Anyone can have knowledge pounded into their head like a tent stake, but the real magic happens when a kid truly wants to learn. The desire to explore makes for a well-rounded child, and an adaptable adult. It was easy for me to reach that point with all the positive role models I had, and I hope to pass that spark on to someone else someday. |
