I’m from Washington DC, USA, and I live in the city now with my family. I’m the only child of Polish immigrants. The USA is my home culture, but I felt incompletely connected to it growing up, and had to find my own ways to bridge the gap. I suppose this has made me open to bridging, and also open to gaps. Social / loner, classicist / punk, contented / bored. That slash is the attractor I orbit, calmly / uncomfortably.
In the recent movie Black Bear, a young filmmaker describes her movies as “Unsuccessful small ones that nobody likes.”
I loved that line. I won’t claim it as a credo — I do have my haters (every writer does), but I’m also happy at the number, and the varied appreciations, of my fans.
Just, it’s a description, even an impulse, I can get behind.
It’s about being distinctive, about being more loyal to an ideal or a passion, than to a commercial expectation or a clear message.
I’ve always been drawn to distinctive art: outsider work, innovative work, with little regard for the mainstreams of its time. I also have seen, many times, the arc of how distinctive art courts its culture, accepting mainstream rejection and dismissal in favor of an embrace by a few passionate fans, who become a few more, one day many more.
It’s not just art. I was a hobbyist, then a worker, in an industry that went from green screens on a few nerdy desks, to color screens in the pockets of most of humanity. That experience directly informs my first novel, but it also informs my sense of my artistic career.
That’s what I am trying to do. I want to make new connections in new ways, to find a distinctive style and approach.
It’s fine if that’s not for everybody. It’s wonderful if it’s for you.
If you’re new to my work, there’s a few samples on the home page to enjoy now, and the chance to download the beginnings to read at your leisure.
I also have some takes on me and my process in these posts.
If you’re reading Demon now, or have finished it, you can find some deeper takes and extras in these posts.
For even more, sign up for my mailing list! I can keep you posted on public appearances, virtual and real, plus new work as it comes out, and some exclusives too. Plus, I’ll send you a free gift – an actual physical object, by mail. How cool is that?