I have some exciting news.

If you’ve been following my social media accounts you already know this, but as of December, 2016, I have signed a book deal with Indigo River Publishing and am gearing up to see GIFT OF THE SHAPER put into print!

In July, 2016, I took a deployment to West Africa. Since I had finished writing the book around May, I figured it was ready to be sent out to agents and publishing houses. After months of rejection letters (which I’d thoroughly braced myself for), the most exciting news of my life came in October when Indigo River reached out to me and said that they loved the idea of the book and wanted to see the manuscript. We traded emails back and forth — which was tough sometimes as my own access was limited — but after coming home from flying a combat support sortie, I got an email with a contract and some words of encouragement.

I couldn’t believe it: I was about to become a published author.

The crazy part is, I had never imagined that I would get this far — especially since this was my first book. It took a lot of time and solitude to write the book in the first place, and would take arguably just as much time and effort to comb through feedback from beta readers and test readers — but as of today, we are rapidly approaching the finished product.

I’m working with a very good friend of mine, Mike Dains — an Air Force vet as well — who will be making the maps for me. I’ve also got an artist working on the cover, which I’m incredibly excited about. As time goes on and we approach the publication date, I hope to provide some updates here.

And, fittingly enough, I will most likely be deployed again by the time the book is ready to be published: I’ve recently been notified of an upcoming combat deployment (this will be number nine for me).

It hasn’t been an easy road, but it’s absolutely been worth it.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll update when I can.

-Dave