I grew up in Valley Center, Kansas (which I put a fictionalized version of in my books).  I joined the Air Force after graduation and served 4 years as a survival equipment tech, meaning I did inspection and repair work on parachutes, life rafts, and other pilot survival gear.

My time in high school sparked my desire to write and during my time in the military, I would go to the base library and write short stories, which are all now published in my short story collection.    I also did two TDY assignments at Elmendorf in Alaska and one in Bahrain.

Since leaving the military I continued to write and build what I call the Yoakumverse, the shared reality of all my books.  

My day job has been jockeying a forklift in shipping and receiving.  

I am also an ordained minister through the ULC and have officiated many weddings.  I was inspired by an episode of the Simpsons where Homer got ordained online.

I met my wife Allison in 2003 and we've together ever since.   We never had kids but we currently have several cats that we consider our kids.

I usually like to spend my weekends with ribs in the smoker and burgers on the grill and a beer in my hand.

Though all my books are self published (except for the multi author collaborations of course) I have my logo as K.O.T. Publications just so it sounds cool.  

It is still just me.

K.O.T. Publications is named in honor of the Knights of Targoth from my Targothian series.