I have been writing various things since I was in my early teens including a try at a novel and a comic book. At that point I never would have conceived writing fantasy or sci-fi. While my dad was into the genre, it wasn’t something that I fancied. I was into Steinbeck, Orwell, Jules Vern and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as Hardy Boy books. So how did I come to write the Sureshot?

When I left home and joined the army I didn’t find much time for writing. The most I managed was to scratch out some poems, mostly to try to impress women (it worked pretty well by the way). I never really thought about writing anything serious and didn’t even read much. Then some friends of mine introduced me to role-playing. In spite of the negative stigma attached to such games, I was interested because it allowed me a measure of creativity. I began playing every Friday at a friend’s house and immediately loved it. The first thing you have to do is create a character, and I went with something that interested me. I have always enjoyed camping and hiking in the mountains, as well as had an interest in archery. The host of the party helped me create a character that would typically be considered a “Ranger” or a highly skilled woodsman. The host helped me name the character “Durbar” and years later this character would be the basis for the “Sureshot.”

I began to really enjoy role-playing especially creating characters and weaving stories together. It was like living a story in a small sense and I loved it. My friends were already fans of the fantasy genre and so they introduced me to some of the more popular titles. I began reading more and more and developed a liking for it. Nowadays I continue to enjoy reading such things and obviously writing them. I would love to get back to some mainstream fiction or explore some of the other genres, but I suspect that I will always have a desire to write more “Sureshot” stories.