Jake Stoddard

About Jake Stoddard

Author

Jake Stoddard

I wrote my first story at five, and creative writing was my favorite part of school. When I read Terry Brooks The Sword of Shannara in Jr. High, I knew I wanted to write fantasy. In the decades that followed, I left behind a wake of incomplete rough drafts.

Other interests called to me over the years, and for a time, I tried to walk away from writing. But the nagging itch to write never left me. At last, one fine November (Yay, NaNoWriMo!) I started what would become my first complete rough draft.

Since then, I’ve attended several writers conferences, joined Word Weavers International, and look forward to publishing my first novelette!

Game Designer

Games have always been big in my family. Our larger gatherings at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s were repeatedly marked with Phase 10, Skip-Bo, Pitch, Bridge, and a host of other games.

In the early 2000’s my brother and I made up over a dozen card and dice games. Then in 2019, we published Castle Couriers.

You can play my latest game, a text adventure for free: Rescue the Princess.

Game design isn’t a high priority for me at the moment, but the ideas still percolate.

Programmer

Another of my favorite pastimes has been programming. When I was six, my parents bought an Apple IIe, and my Dad helped me write my first program.

I ended up as a Software Engineer working on network management software, though my favorite things to program are graphics algorithms: Lindenmayer SystemsSubdivisionDiffusion-Limited AggregationMetaballsReaction-Diffusion, and the like. Flocking is cool, too!

Husband and Father

My wonderful wife and I met in 2004 at church through a mutual friend. We ballroom danced into romance, married in 2005, and never looked back.

Almost a year after tying the knot, we had a son, and four and a half years after that, were blessed with a daughter.

Now, I know everyone says they have the best kids in the world, but in my case…

It’s true.

Child of God

At 11, I faced the reality of my sin and my certain future judgment. After an honest look at the myself through the standard of the 10 Commandments, I knew I did not measure up. I turned to Jesus, my only means of rescue. He took my punishment on himself and gave me a new hope of life after death.

Now I endeavor, in my own stumbling way, to bring him a small part of the great glory He is due.