About Jake Stoddard
Author
Jake wrote his first story at six, and creative writing was his favorite part of school. When he read Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara in Jr. High, he knew he wanted to write fantasy. But in the decades that followed, he left a wake of unfinished drafts.
Other interests called to him over the years, and for a time, he tried to walk away from writing. But the nagging itch to write never left. In 2019, he joined NaNoWriMo and started what would become his first complete draft.
Since then, he’s attended several writers conferences, joined Word Weavers International, and looks forward to publishing his first novelette.
Game Designer
Games have always been big in Jake’s family. Their 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 Jake and his brother designed over a dozen card and dice games. Then in 2019, they published Castle Couriers.
Jake’s latest game is a text adventure: Rescue the Princess.
Game design isn’t a high priority for him at the moment, but the ideas still percolate.
Programmer
Another of Jake’s favorite pastimes is programming. When he was six, his parents bought an Apple IIe, and his Dad helped him write his first program.
He ended up as a Software Engineer working on network management software, although his favorite things to program are graphics algorithms: Lindenmayer Systems, Subdivision, Diffusion-Limited Aggregation, Metaballs, Reaction-Diffusion, and the like. He loves Flocking, too!
Husband and Father
Jake met his wonderful wife in 2004 at church through a mutual friend. They ballroom-danced into romance, married in 2005, and never looked back.
Almost a year after tying the knot, they had a son, and four and a half years after that, were blessed with a daughter.
Child of God
At 11, Jake faced the reality of his sin and his certain future judgment. After an honest look at himself through the standard of the 10 Commandments, he knew he did not measure up. He turned to Jesus, his only means of rescue. Jesus took his punishment on himself and gave Jake a new hope of life after death.
Now Jake endeavors, in his own stumbling way, to bring God a small part of the great glory He is due.