Writing

Eating Glass: The Inner Journey Through Failure and Renewal

Nonfiction · 2021

"Even as we celebrate what we have achieved, applaud ourselves for daring greatly, and shrug off failure, we are dying inside. Because nobody has really, honestly told us what failure feels like, and the truth is, it is terrifying and it is lonely and it hurts like hell."

We are often unprepared for the trauma and grief that accompanies failure in business, relationships, or life. Drawing on personal experiences including a failed humanitarian nonprofit and a grueling PhD process, this book provides a compassionate guide through four stages: failure, aftermath, healing, and renewal. It speaks to dreamers and achievers navigating failure's aftermath, providing assurance that you aren't alone and that failure seasons can be fertile growth periods.

Lords of Harambee

Science Fiction Novel

The hostile world of Harambee was settled by refugees seeking a better life, with a little nudge from the Transsolar Corporation. Now General Michael Sheridan commands an interstellar peacekeeping operation tasked with bringing order to a world torn apart by poverty, ethnic conflict, and foreign exploitation. His estranged daughter Claire is an idealistic human rights lawyer who adamantly opposes the mission. Their worst fears are realized when a coup topples the government and unleashes a horrific campaign of genocide. These individuals must risk everything, and violate their most cherished principles, to stop the killing—especially when Sheridan's peacekeepers are ordered not to intervene.

"Solemnity"

Asimov's Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2025

A team of scientists investigate the ruins of an alien civilization that went extinct after the death of its god. Their disturbing findings raise profound religious questions.

"The Weight of Oceans"

Asimov's Science Fiction, 2024

My second story with Asimov's SF explores the common feeling that the world's challenges are bigger than we can comprehend or manage. It asks how we can find hope and agency, when we are holding back…

"The Repair"

Asimov's Science Fiction, 2022

This was my first sale to Asimov's SF. It began as an experiment to try writing a cyberpunk story, but became an exploration of "cancellation" and its grim possible future. Read the accompanying interview at Asimov's author/editor blog, From the Earth to the Stars.

"Destroyer of Worlds"

Inkstick Media, 2021 · 3rd Place

I wrote this story for an Inkstick Media contest soliciting stories designed to shake readers out of nuclear apathy. Rather than take the obvious route of writing a scary story about a nuclear explosion, I wrote a story about the battle to overcome nuclear apathy within America itself.

"Celestial Object 143205"

Derelict anthology, 2021

When a Chinese venture capitalist sets out into solar orbit to recover Elon Musk's Tesla, the United States Space Force scrambles to get there first. This story was a heck of a lot of fun to write, but I also intended it to raise serious thought about how countries will pursue their national interest in a domain that is so hostile to human life. This story appears in the Derelict anthology.

"The Wasp Keepers"

CIMSEC, 2014

What if the United States could develop perfect sensing and perfect strike capabilities but still lose? Also available online at the Center for International Maritime Security.