So why did I write a memoir?

Memoirs are a hot genre these days, but that’s not at all why I chose to write my own.

Rather, I’ve elected to share my life with the world for a number reasons. The biggest being my hope it will serve as inspiration for whoever needs it.

I’m not here to sell a miracle solution that will solve all your problems, but my experience in tragedy has provided me ample insight on how to persevere through almost any bullshit life can, and will, hurl your way.

I also grew up in a part of the world that is often overlooked, and underappreciated: Western Nebraska. I may have spent the majority of my childhood wishing I lived somewhere else, but years away from my hometown have helped me understand what a unique and magnificent place it was.

Especially because of its wonderful attributes that I took for granted as a child. Like being able to ride a horse whenever I wanted. Or receiving such an excellent education because I had such a small number of classmates. Or that I never felt in danger because crime was practically nonexistent in our ranching community.

None of this mattered when I was young, however, because I wanted so much more. More to experience, more to see, more people to interact with. Which is why I fell so deeply in love with reading. Books opened up my world tremendously, exposing me to vastly different cultures and events than those contained within my rural surroundings.

Reading motivated me to dream big, and develop plans to eventually escape my hometown. It filled my mind with endless possibilities, and I longed for a life that resonated with the excitement the characters in my stories lived with.

Then, just before my last year of high school, events of life-changing proportions began to drastically alter my existence. A new tragedy overwhelmed me and my immediate family each year from 1999 to 2005. Six straight years of anguish and heartache. It was as if I had become the main character in an agonizing tale of survival, and often the survival seemed unlikely.

Yet somehow I maintained, and almost 20 years have passed since the hardest stuff went down. So I decided to re-examine those tragedies I'd overcome, and put it all to paper. The end result, Bad Luck Boots, is now available in paperback and digital formats, and will soon be released as an audiobook!