BOOKS

The Kino Chronicles Origins

For my dad.

Back in the Summer 1997, living in a rented house on Kootenay Lake in beautiful Balfour, BC, I sat down and started writing. I wasn’t planning to write a novel, I just had a story I wanted to tell, and so I spent a month telling it. I wasn't expecting it to become a full length novel, I thought it would be a pocketbook or novella, but instead it turned into something I was proud of. I printed it out and handed it to my father for his birthday on January 15, 1998. Then life happened, and I forgot the story ever existed.

• 1997

A Story Worth Telling
The original novel, called The Mayan Influence, was written. A story about two ordinary people swept into an interstellar empire, and the secret our Moon had been keeping for ten thousand years.

• 1998

A Birthday Gift
I printed a copy out and gave it to my dad. My handwriting, well more like scribble, across the top of the title page, wishing him a happy birthday. Then life moved on, and the story was set aside.

• Years later

A Small Spark
Stumbling across old digital files I found files named with what appeared to be chapter headings. Buried deeper into the folders, I found a file called The Mayan Influence. I blinked and stared at the name. I barely remembered writing this novel but it started to rekindle something deep inside. It wasn't enough to act on but it ignited memories. 

• A couple years after that

• His Copy
  Cleaning the garage one day, I found the actual manuscript, hidden in an old trunk. His copy. My mom must have put it in the memory trunk after my father passed away. It was hidden between my old homework assignments and report cards from elementary school. My handwriting was still legible and scrawlled across the title page, wishing him a happy birthday. Finding the electronic version felt like luck. But finding the original printed copy made me feel like the story was begging to be finished.

• 2025

• Writing Again
  That discovery led to me writing short stories and turning them into audio adaptations that were about 10 to 20 minutes long. I posted on YouTube on a channel called 5 Minute Tales. The creativity was back in full swing. It felt good. Then early 2026 came and rediscovered the electronic files of the Mayan Influence novel and I realized it was time to go further.

• 2026

• Mayan Gene
  Five or six drafts later and sent out to get honest feedback from beta readers, the novel transformed. After several name changes, including Orion Empire, copyright 2026, a new title was found, and it just felt right. The Mayan Influence became Mayan Gene — Book One of The Kino Chronicles — nearly thirty years between the first word and the first reader, with my dad somewhere in the middle of all of it.

 "Finding the electronic version felt like luck. But finding the original printed copy made me feel like the story was begging to be finished."  The creative current didn’t stop with this publication. Book Two, Achion, is already underway with two more planned books after that. Turns out the original story had a lot of patience, and a lot left to say.