Who I am

As a Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Alaska Anchorage, I am, by formal standards, unqualified to write fantasy. But in the digital age of self-publishing, that’s no barrier to entry, and with guidance from someone who actually is qualified with a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing (Marissa Palmer, MFA, UAA), I was launched into a second career as a writer of mythic sagas.

What I lack in literary credentials, I make up for with a lifetime of real-world adventures—the kind that sagas are made of. I've explored unknown territory of the Arctic, made first ascents of peaks in Alaska and Baffin Island, been marooned with the Inuit north of the Arctic Circle, skied on rivers of ice in the Brooks Range, kayaked the waters of Prince William Sound, the Kenai Fjords, and the Chukchi Sea, and trekked through vast wilderness in Alaska and the Yukon.  Much of what I write is drawn straight from those experiences.

My academic background in math and science did prove useful when I stumbled into the visual arts of 3D graphics. That technical training helped bring my imagined worlds and their inhabitants to life.

These stories are deeply inspired by the land and people of the North. I’ve shared time and stories with the Inuit of Baffin Island, and I live in Alaska—a region rich with the traditions of the Yup’ik and Iñupiat peoples. But I also carry the stories of my Scandinavian ancestors—the ancient mythology of the Norse that runs through my sagas.

In writing these tales over the course of ten years, I’ve found an adventure every bit as exciting as any I’ve had by land or sea. If you're curious to know more, my story begins here: