For me, writing is about seeing things, experiencing things and then telling other people about it. In the early 90’s, I was the sports editor for The Manitoban, the student newspaper at the University of Manitoba. One memorable article from that year was interviewing Jon Olerud, the first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays. As a 19-year old, that was a pretty cool gig. A few years later, I wrote for True North Volleyball  and the Calgary Herald when I travelled to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. I remember being on a train and hearing the groans and cheers as the USA won the Olympic gold medal in basketball. People in Canada who read my article got to read about something I experienced. Another part of that Australia trip was going body surfing on the Gold Coast. People in Calgary got to read about me getting tumbled up in the waves.

Writing is also about telling other people’s stories. In 2017, my years of covering volleyball culminated in my completion of “Pischke Power” a self-published biography of Garth Pischke, a legendary volleyball coach and player from the University of Manitoba. As head coach of the Manitoba Bisons, his office was next to my Dad’s office, the head women’s gymnastic coach. As a kid, I didn’t know that Garth was one of the world’s best volleyball players. When I became sports editor, I covered the women’s volleyball team and started watching his teams. I used those experiences along with dozens of interviews to write his story (Garth was too humble to tell his own story).

In Grade 7, my final assignment in my creative writing class was to write a short story. I wrote a story about an innocent tourist getting caught up with drug traffickers in Hawaii. My teacher, Thomas Meredith, really liked the story and with some work, it could be “publishable”. In 2019, my wife Cara found the story in a box and encouraged me to develop it into a novel. Ten pages became fifty, then one hundred pages. When we adopted our son, I would write one-handed with him sleeping on my shoulder. The story I wrote in Grade 7 has gone through many changes and edits and is now ready for the world.

Surfing with The Devil is a 310-page crime fiction thriller, the first book in a planned trilogy. I’m actively seeking a literary agent but in the meantime, I want to build an audience and get people excited about the book.

Here’s a quick synopsis: When a surf-loving dreamer and a sheltered college student cross paths in Hawaii, a new romance quickly shifts to a high-stakes battle for survival against a ruthless $500 million crystal meth empire. The best way to think of my novel is “The Border” by Don Winslow meets “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” by Steig Larsson.

Feel free to reach out to me for a sample chapter by sending me an email.