About

I spent over a decade teaching world history — AP World History, Humanities, the kind of classes where you spend a lot of time explaining to teenagers why the fall of the Roman Republic actually matters. I loved it. In 2018, the Texas Humanities organization named me their Teacher of the Year, which I mention not to brag but because it explains a lot about why this book exists.

I was also, quietly, someone who had never written fiction and wasn't entirely sure I could.

Then in October 2023, I stood in the Roman Forum, and a tour guide pointed at the ruins and said: here is where the Vestal Virgins lived. In that moment I saw one character — who she was, what had been done to her, what it would cost her. I didn't know yet that pulling that thread would unravel into three books. I didn't know yet that I'd actually finish them.

The Emperor's Shadow — the first book in the Empire of the Shattered Heavens Trilogy — releases October 12, 2026. Books Two and Three are already written and deep in the editing phase. I'm still not entirely sure how that happened.

I live in Austin, Texas. I write dark things and then go to HEB. The contrast feels about right.

If you want to follow the process — the world-building, the publishing, the ongoing experience of doing something terrifying for the first time — you can join my newsletter below. The first thing you'll get is a deleted scene from the book.

I also write about creativity, discipline, and the ongoing project of becoming over at The Wannabe. That's where this whole thing started, if you want the longer story.