I grew up in Northern California and went to college at the University of California Santa Cruz, where I studied literature and international politics.

After graduating, I went to Taiwan to study Chinese and teach English. I lived and worked in Taiwan for three years, during which time I met and married my wife. In 1987, my wife and I moved to Seattle, Washington so I could begin law school at the University of Washington.

After I finished law school, we returned to Taiwan with our son. We lived in Taiwan for seven years during which time I worked for law firms in Taipei and our two daughters were born.

In 1998, the family moved back to Northern California, where I found work at a technology company in Silicon Valley. In my free time, I began work on a fantasy adventure novel. We remained in Silicon Valley, and I published the novel as Kingdom of the Silver Cat in 2019.