A little bit of everything, honestly, but some of the big ones are:

1. Other media to include video games (of course), movies, tv shows, and books.
2. Real life
3. Personal experiences
4. My faith — I'm a Christian, and even though my books aren't labeled as such, my faith impacts my world view, which also influences my writing.

I write because I believe stories can have a positive impact on people across cultures, and because I feel that God has called me to do so.

In a world filled with so much negativity and hate, my goal is to provide light, create laughter, and foster creativity, especially for kids.

The idea for the Once Upon a Game universe came to me as I was writing an unannonced, but related story. I was trying to think of a way to expand that story into a series, and the idea I had was this:

What if my favorite stories, games, movies, and books, were all combined into one single universe?

How would I do that? It was a tough call, but since I write books for kids, I reflected on how I could relate to them.

Video games are a huge part of kids' lives today (and for some adults), and I grew up playing quite a few video games.

So, after some thought, here's the basic premise I came up with:

Two brothers embark on quests in a fictional video game world.

Thus, the Once Upon a Game series & the fictional video game land of Yore was created.

As more books are released, you'll find yourself immersed in lighthearted, action-packed adventures with many influences from pop culture.

There are way too many things to list here, and sometimes the list changes, but let me give you an idea of some of my favorites when it comes to entertainment.

Video Games: Growing up, I played just about anything; sports, racing, first-person shooters, rpgs, simulators, real-time strategy, you name it. Some of the most memorable games I played were the Pokemon Red and Silver for Gameboy Color, The Elder Scrolls series, and Halo 2, especially when my friends and I would system-link from the other room. What the heck is system-link? For my younger readers, that's when two consoles are physically connected by an ethernet cable in the same house. Why? because not everyone had wi-fi in their house back then — and no, I'm not that old. Some of my recent favorite games to play are the Borderlands series and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. Oh, and I'm pretty decent at Guitar Hero.

Movies: It would be hard to list my absolute favorite movie because I enjoy a varitey of things. Some of my favorites include Shrek, Toy Story, Cars, Despicable Me, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars. I'm a huge fan of 3D animation. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a 3D animator "when I grew up". I'd still love to collaborate with an animation studio if the opportunity presented itself.

Books: As mentioned in my author bio, I didn't read a lot as a kid. I think it was because we were always assigned books to read in school that weren't particularly interesting to me. If you've read my books, however, you'll know I enjoy fantasy. There is no doubt my favorite fictional book series is Harry Potter, and I've listened to the audiobooks several times. My favorite Harry Potter book is the Prisoner of Azkaban. Because I was influenced to write after listening to some great audiobook narrations, and I didn't start listening until my mid-20s, I don't have a huge list of books I've read to list here. However, others that I have enjoyed the most include The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit, Ready Player One, and The Dark Lord Bert. I'm currently making my way through the Alcatraz series by Brandon Sanderson and I'm enjoying that a lot.

TV Shows: From my writing, you probably have deduced that I like a good dash of humor. I love sitcoms, and some of my favorites are The Goldbergs, The Middle, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I also enjoy cartoons like Phineas and Ferb and The Simpsons.