I grew up in a small picturesque town north of Seattle. During my junior year of high school, three friends and I started a clothing line called LOKEY Innovative Apparel. From that moment forward, being creatively independent and simultaneously achieving career autonomy has been my goal. Fifteen years later, not one year has passed without my working on a project to realize that goal. The many facets of Contra Alliance are the culmination of my efforts. Either my objective is realized with this or I'm done trying.

Over the last three years I have worked in the aerospace defense industry on military programs for two of the nation's largest prime contractors. Prior to working in aerospace, I earned a master's degree in national security studies and a certificate of intelligence methodology from California State University. My undergraduate degree is in marketing from Western Washington University. I currently reside in Los Angeles with complete dedication to successfully launching Contra Alliance and collaborating with others in the process.



Contra Alliance was unplanned. Several weeks after 9/11, I was out golfing with two friends near Deception Pass Bridge on Whidbey Island when a vision struck me - literally. Looking up to the sky while waiting for my turn, a flash of interconnected imagery passed through my mind; I felt like I was emblazoned with a kaleidoscopic impression of organized story concepts in a visual pattern that contained information and transferred meaning in perfect clarity.

When I returned home I ran up to my room and typed out everything I could remember. I wrote five pages. The entire foundation of Contra Alliance is based off that moment and those pages.

Over the next few years I casually expanded on the ideas in the original pages, building a timeline, chronology, and characters around the vision while always letting the story take the lead. The scope was immense and the workload overwhelming. I often put it away and tried to forget about it for months at a time. Whenever picking it back up, I felt compelled to finish the work, like some untrained caretaker on an impossible mission.

During my first year in aerospace, I made the decision to make it a go with Contra Alliance. Having hundreds of pages of background on the universe, I began writing a movie script and then switched it to book format. Bringing out the visual aspects of the story has always been important to me, so I teamed with Drew Struzan (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) to paint a movie concept titled "Alliance Vision," and Joe Benitez (Wraithborn, The Magdalena) to bring out the characters in a scene titled "Discover the Universe" with inks by Victor Llamas and colors by Edgar Delgado.

Book I: Shadows of the Past is the introductory component of the larger multiplatform Contra Alliance master storyline, which is composed of two non-sequential trilogies and a grand finale. Shadows of the Past is the beginning. Getting this far independently would never have happened without being a fan of the story myself. With new web 2.0 evolutions, the timing for launch is perfect. I look forward to interactivity, collaboration, and developing Contra Alliance to its full potential in content and multiplatform worth with the right partners.

If Stephen King was correct in On Writing, I think the muse is knocking. He's got the magic stuff in his bag. I went to his level, burned the midnight oil, and did the grunt work. After eight years of development, for $22.95 you can join us.