About

Raised on copious educational media such as public television, nature documentaries, and weekly trips to the library. Now spending time shilling rhymes in NYC parks while working to finish a first novel (out of the dozens of stories, books, and games in some stage of development, but one step at a time).

Influences

I think everything we encounter leaves an imprint in some way, but these are a few of the more significant early influences in my creative journey.

The World of David the Gnome - I was obsessed with this show before I could properly pronounce its name, and it's probably one of my earliest distinct memories of any media. Looking back at it now, it really informs so many things about my interests.

Jim Henson - If there's any single person that I could say has had the biggest influence on me, it's probably Jim Henson. From Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock to Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, the Storyteller and everything else in between, Jim Henson's creations have had a deep and lasting impact. I don't know if CGI will ever look as good as a puppet to me.

Quest for Glory - I grew up playing a substantial amount of video games, and point and click adventure games (and to a slightly lesser extent their text precursors) are probably still my favorite category overall. In particular, all the Sierra On-Line releases from the '80s through the late '90s, of which the Quest for Glory series is my favorite. Quest for Glory IV is the real standout for me. It was the first I'd played in the series and pulled me in completely. The art style, the setting, the story, the narration, the humor. It's a real gem and the whole series is magnificent. The whole Sierra catalog is wonderful - Kings Quest, Torin's Passage, and so many more. Other 3D exploration-based titles such as the Myst series feature highly as well.

Sailor Moon - Anime in general had a huge presence in my teen years, but Sailor Moon was the first one that I can ever remember seeing, long before I knew what "anime" was as genre. It was definitely a whole gateway into the broader realm of Japanese media and many super sentai-inspired transforming heroes feature pretty highly, but I found the magical girl shows much more relatable as they more often touched on tangible problems like school and romance.

Little Nemo - I'm honestly not sure when the first time I saw Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland is, but I've watched the film at least a dozen times, and fallen asleep to it likely hundreds more by now. It's a a paragon of fancy, and I've developed a great affection for the original comic strips as well.

Poetic Influences

For someone engaged in the business of writing poetry, I read shockingly little of it, all things told. Perhaps not the biggest, but first distinct influence that got me thinking about approaching meter in more interesting ways is Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens). The song Sad Lisa with its staggered rhyming pattern in particular stirred the creative process and got me thinking outside the box.

Skaldic poetry has become another big interest of mine, with it's elaborate and rigid structures of rhyme and alliteration. I think exploring these themes has made me unafraid to write with highly irregular, or that is to say very regular but unusual and not necessarily melodic structures and cadences within my verse.

While perhaps not a direct influence, A.E. Housman is my favorite poet and I find a kinship in his often melancholic exploration of pastoral life, forlorn romance, and the futility of war.