Fantasist, Science Fictionist, Magical Realist, Alternate Historian
Joe was born in 1977 in Columbia, MO, his parents' fifth and final child. He wrote his first short story in 1983 and it was terrible. In 1999 he graduated from Truman State University in Kirksville, MO, with a BA degree in English - Creative Writing and Theatre - Playwriting. In his last semester, he wrote the ten-minute play Jigsaw that was accepted as a regional finalist in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. It was performed January 2000 in Sioux Falls, SD, in front of an audience of 700 people.
After college Joe wrote for the role playing industry, co-authoring Dangerous Denizens: The Monsters of Tellene for Kenzer & Co. He followed that with the online PDF "Living Kingdoms of Kalamar Campaign Sourcebook," which he wrote and typeset. Following that he wrote 33 adventures for the RPGA Network, first for Kenzer's Living Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign and then Wizards of the Coast's Living Greyhawk campaign. None of his fictional characters began as role playing PCs, just FYI.
In 2018 Joe earned his Master of Science in Instructional Design & Technology. Along with his passion for writing, Joe has an intense desire to help shift the course of education from its current factory-like performance-based instruction to growth-oriented teaching that allows students to master a subject at the pace appropriate to them. If those terms sound familiar, you might recognize them from the infamous 2017 confirmation hearing of Secretary Betsy DeVos, who was President Trump's secretary of education but did not know the definition of either term or how they related.
Joe currently lives in Nashua, NH, with his wife and three cats. He works full time in educational publishing, writing in the morning and any other free time he can find.. He fills the rest of his time with board/video games, roller derby, crossfit, and breakfast food. Find him writing at the counter of one of New Hampshire's many wonderful local breakfast eateries. Feel free to say hello, but please understand he hates cold food. It's misanthropy with pancakes!
Today's Influences
Authors
Also: Carol Berg, Robert E. Howard, Katherine Arden
Movies
Also: Lucky Number Slevin, Out of Sight, The Thin Man
Music
Also: Knife Party, Jesse Cook, System of a Down
Plays
Also: Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Claude-Michel Schönberg's (et al.) Les Miserables, William Shakespeare's Othello
Poets
Also: Robert Frost, Marianne Williamson, John Donne
Television
Also: Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, The Smothers Brothers, Luther
YouTube
Also: Door Monster, NativLang, and Ze Frank