Screenwriting

With a degree in eighteenth-century literature and a lifelong love of science fiction and horror, I tell genre stories about ordinary people forced to become extraordinary to survive, protect their loved ones, and grow. You can find several of my projects on Coverfly.

With my writing partner Elisabeth Strayer, we’ve written television pilots about quirky small-towns and queer empowerment, and we are currently breaking a sci-fi thriller feature.

Fiction Writing

Most of my stories I would consider speculative or weird fiction, taking place in worlds that are one step removed from our own.

I have short stories published or forthcoming in publications like Simultaneous Times, Every Day Fiction, Leviathan, and Blasphemous Tomes. A friend once said that my writing was “darkly erotic,” and I’ve tried to live up to that description ever since.

RPG Writing & Editing

Starting in 2017, I began work as a freelance writer and editor for tabletop roleplaying games. At Reckoning of the Dead, a blog that I co-wrote with Matt Ryan, we wrote weekly one-page scenarios and additional articles about roleplaying and horror. Over the next four years, I was lucky to write several scenarios with notable creators, and I edited several dozen products for publication. I’ve included a few highlights below.

For M.T. Black

M.T. Black remains one of the most prolific and influential creators on the DM’s Guild (the Dungeons & Dragons version of the Miskatonic Repository). Working with M.T., I copyedited nine products between 2018 and 2020, including Mordenkainen’s Tome of Marvelous Magic, now an adamantine bestseller (the highest category that the DMs Guild offers—there are only 73 other products that have reached the adamantine level).

I’ve recently edited two of M.T.’s enormously successful Kickstarter-backed projects, Fraternity of Ash and The Anatomy of Adventure, Second Edition.

Harlem Unbound

When the first edition of Harlem Unbound came out, it shook the world of gaming, bringing the issues of representation and racism to the gaming table in ways never seen before.

For the second edition, I was invited to contribute a scenario set in the Dreamlands, called “An Ode for the Lost.” (You have no idea how many permutations the title went through.) It was an honor to contribute to this project, and I’m still very proud of the result.

Miskatonic Repository

On the Miskatonic Repository, Chaosium’s online repository for fan-made scenarios and supplements, Matt Ryan and I released two scenarios.

Chaosium invited us to contribute “PLAGUE” as one of the first five scenarios released on the Miskatonic Repository, to drum up excitement. It’s now a silver bestseller on DriveThruRPG, and still one of my favorite scenarios.

The second scenario, “A Lark in a Cage,” was written by myself with additional artwork and layout by Matt. It’s now a copper bestseller.

Pelgrane Press

My work with Pelgrane Press was remarkably diverse. As the Publishing Assistant, I wrote articles and blog posts, performed developmental edits on forthcoming products, managed the transfer of old articles from a former website to the current one, and spearheaded their expansion on YouTube and Twitch, growing the latter platform from 0 to over 400 followers.

Session Zero

Session Zero: An Introduction to the World of Roleplaying Games, written by John C. Byram and edited by myself, explains the world of roleplaying games to those who have never played and want to know what all the fuss is about. In 2020, the book won a Silver ENnie award for Best RPG Related Product.

System Design

I’ve occasionally tried my hand at system design as well. Over at itch.io, you can find my game Ringtrees, where you play out the life of, yes, a tree, one year at a time, or Axylus, my game about the lovelives of giant robot pilots.