About me 

Don’t ask me why, but I’ve always been in love with the Middle Ages.  As a kid, I was glued to our TV whenever a medieval themed movie came on. (Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood was my standing favorite).  At the age of eight or nine, I checked out a book (John Tunis’s Weapons:  A Pictorial History) and began a lifelong fascination with swords and armor.  When my fifth grade teacher (sorry, can’t recall her name) read us The Hobbit every day after lunch, I was entranced.

Maybe most kids pass out of their sword fighting stage like they do with plastic dinosaurs, but I never did.  In my teens I consumed a bazillion medieval fantasy novels when I should have been out raising hell (favorites, besides Tolkein, include Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Jack Vance’s Cugel, and Michael Moorcock’s Elric).  In college I discovered medieval literature, which I pursued in grad school with a focus in Old and Middle English.

As a teenager I wanted to be a writer, but I ended up as a university writing instructor (University of California, Davis; Humboldt State University).  However, I never strayed far from the Middle Ages. I became a dedicated medieval reenactor (Society for Creative Anachronism) and an avid participant in full contact armored combat. In 1985 I chucked my teaching job and spent that next sixteen years making period armor (Mackenzie-Smith Medieval Arms and Armor).

During these years, I traveled extensively, conducting first hand research at most of the major collections of armor and weapons (including the Royal Armouries of Great Britain; The Wallace Collection, London; Kunst Historisches Museum, Vienna;  Higgins Armory, Worcester, MA). I consulted on the film Shrek, appeared in the Learning Channel’s Great Book Series (Le Morte d’Arthur episode), and spoke at San Francisco’s de Young Museum.

I returned to teaching in 2002 and was very, very fortunate when my wife Chris and I landed jobs overseas, first in Japan then in Germany.  This afforded me many invaluable opportunities to explore the ancient towns, castles, battlefields, and museums of Europe. It was in one such journey of exploration that my first novel Thurmond’s Saga was conceived.

Chris and I have now retired from teaching and now living in Washington state after twelve years abroad.  Thurmond’s Saga was joined in 2017 by its sequel Castle of the Red Contessa.  A third installment, The Battle of Gorgonholm, is complete and available.  A fourth, Isle of Tangled Dreams, is in the works as well.