A Life Rebuilt by Grace, Shared One Story at a Time
I write inspirational fiction for readers who need a little hope in the middle of real life.
A Story I Never Planned to Write
For most of my life, I thought I knew where my story was going.
I played college basketball, raised and educated two daughters, built five businesses, and spent four decades building custom homes and developing land. Along the way, I even had the privilege of helping a 14,500-member church make the enormous transition to a new campus in another city. I loved building things, solving problems, and watching plans become reality.
But running alongside all of those experiences has been another part of my story: multiple sclerosis.
I was diagnosed at twenty years old, beginning a journey with MS that has now spanned more than 50 years. For decades, I managed the disease while continuing to work, build businesses, raise a family, and pursue the life I had planned.
Then, in 2019, a serious fall changed everything.
I could no longer walk the jobsites or work in the dirt I had known for so many years. I became a full-time wheelchair user, and suddenly the future I had imagined for myself was gone. I struggled with that loss. For nearly two years, I wrestled with God over why the life and work I loved had been taken away.
Eventually, I stopped asking God to give me my old plans back and began asking a different question:
“What do You want me to do with the life I have now?”
That question changed the trajectory of my life.
Writing became an unexpected answer. The home builder who never imagined himself becoming a novelist—much less writing stories about faith, relationships, family, and love—discovered an entirely new way to build.
Today, I write from my red wheelchair, affectionately named Lucy, creating stories about ordinary people navigating extraordinary circumstances. My hope is to write clean, engaging Christian fiction that reflects the struggles people actually face while reminding readers of the faith, hope, relationships, and purpose that can carry us through them.
After everything these years have taught me, one idea continues to rise above the rest:
Availability.
We don't always get to choose the circumstances God places before us. We can, however, choose to make ourselves available—to serve, to create, to encourage, and to allow God to use whatever chapter we're living for His glory.
I spent much of my life building homes.
Now, I'm building stories. And I never expected to love the work this much.
It’s a Better Story the Way I Tell It
“It’s a better story the way I tell it” was the recurring battle cry of my beloved late father-in-law, Jesse McDonald.
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Forget truth and lies; it’s the lawyer in the courtroom with the best story who usually wins. His elegant montages of truth laced with bombastic intrigue earned Jesse more victories than almost all the other lawyers in Louisiana—a place known for colorful stories and gigantic fish tales.
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When I write, I often think of Jesse and his showmanship. I love stories that combine historic places and events with an author’s creative liberties.
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After all, creativity was what helped me stand out from most other builders in the marketplace for forty years.
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Anyone can build cookie-cutter homes. That’s not what my clientele hired me to provide. Most wanted a house unlike that of any of their friends: a one-off, unique, unusual, distinctive place to call their own.
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So, I let my imagination roll.
From Building Homes to Building Hope
I describe myself as an ordinary guy. Yet through grace, humility, and a willingness to be available, I found myself called to write Christian romance and inspirational stories.
My own ragtag life became the foundation for a growing collection of books about people discovering purpose in unexpected places.
With God, “available” is all He needs.
A Life Made Available
Ordinary Exceptionalism is a collection of ten short fiction stories that can be read in a single sitting. Each story follows ordinary people learning to become available to God’s desires for their lives.
The stories explore faith, family, friendship, service, and the unexpected ways people can discover purpose through everyday struggles.
Designed as an introduction to the upcoming Found by Love series, the book offers an engaging alternative for readers who don't have time to digest an entire novel.
It is also suited for daily quiet time, small groups, and book clubs, with timely questions for thought and discussion included at the back.