The Hunger

At ten, Joe hated reading. He despised it. At best he would occasionally browse the encyclopedia and get tricked into reading small passages that accompanied interesting pictures. Despite hating to read, Joe loved book stores. That was where the Dungeons and Dragons books were sold. While on vacation, it was at one such book store where at fifteen, Joe found a novel with a dragon on the cover. His small town life had precluded him from learning such things were possible, but there it was. He read that novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, in a single weekend, a feat unheard of in the History of Joe. Thus began a new love of reading. At seventeen, Joe was going to college. He wanted to write. Joe asked someone he respected, a writer, if he thought Joe would do well as an English major. The man said, "No." Joe went another route, and the dream of being a writer vanished. At forty ... um ... something ... Joe was a computer programmer, but occasionally he still dreamed of writing. That was when he found NaNoWriMo. He failed to write a novel in a month on his first try, but his friends and family encouraged him. (He did eventually win a couple years later with the sequel to his first book). At fifty, on the day of his birth, Joe published his first novel, 'The Hunger - Book 1 in The Diary of Charlotte'. Joe has depression and ADHD. He and his wife have celebrated twenty-five years of marriage. They have one child, a daughter, whose name is a variation on the Celtic word for 'princess'. Joe loves his family & friends, gaming, 3d printing, miniature painting, sleep, and yes, reading.