About Me

I was born David Eugene Harrell, Jr in the summer of 1984 in Des Moines, Iowa where my folks lived for a couple of years before bouncing back to St. Louis, Missouri. As such, I’m the only one in my family born out of state while being the eldest of three boys. When I was old enough to go to school, I entered the Normandy school district, and as a hard introvert, I kept to myself and was mostly quiet, but I was conscientious, stayed out of trouble, and tried to do the right thing. Despite this, there was still a darkness in me that I kept hidden, a monster I did not know how to face.

For most of my childhood, my parents took me and my younger brother to church on Sundays, and for a time, my mom would read Bible stories to us at night. We’d talk about what we thought and how we felt, and as I got older, my curiosity grew. I questioned everything. I questioned the character of God, humanity, existence, and relationships, and I wanted to know how everything worked and how things could be better. I wanted to be better. I grew up on School House Rock, Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, and Power Rangers. My favorite sitcoms were The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, and Boy Meets World. I was an idealist even if a bit cynical, but I believed if people knew the truth, they would naturally do the right thing, and I wanted to believe I would too.

Some of my switches flipped after multiple life events which included two heartbreaks, multiple school shootings, moving out of state for my BA and returning with student loan debt, 9/11, the recession, and my increasing awareness of the dysfunctional state of government both in the US and the world. Then I finally got my first house and got married in 2019, had my first daughter in 2020 and my second a year later. Now I’m a family man with three kids, and through it all so far, I’ve learned, I’ve grown, and I’ve matured, but I’m still curious, I still dream, I’m still a hard introvert, and I still tango with the darkness that is in me and the monster I could have been.

This is why I write redemption stories. I’m still an idealist. I believe in free will, and I think people, even monsters, when given the opportunity can do the right thing, but I no longer think they’ll do it naturally on their own. I believe they have to use their will to do it, and that takes agency. That takes work. That takes control.

Writing Firestar

It was 2004. I lived in Arizona for school, and I was in the middle of writing another series when I first conceived of Firestar. Darrio was just an avatar with a backstory I put together in my head for an online RPG I was playing, but I liked him enough to spin a unique story around him and a new world to accommodate it. I had two other avatars from the game that would accompany him on the journey, and I imagined it as a fantasy sci-fi adventure with Darrio struggling with magic and his allies figuring out how to deal with it and him. Seris was the antagonist with a personal connection to Darrio, but he was a taskmaster and played to the trope of a charismatic bastard, a far cry from who he is now. Lon and Tam were “angels” of administration, and I had written up to five chapters of the script before I paused. Even with notes for the sequel, I stopped, and it was for a simple reason. I wasn’t ready to write it.

I rewrote the beginning of that first script several times before I felt fine enough to push ahead, but I was operating with a limited understanding of the characters, their backgrounds, and the powers in play. I sensed I wasn’t mature enough to do it justice, and I felt like what I did have needed time to develop, so I let it go and returned to the series I was already on. I didn’t come back to Firestar again until I was back in Missouri four years later in 2008.

Now Firestar was originally a game I wanted to make, an RPG using an active turn-based system I designed that would allow the player to perform a variety of actions based on the situation. It was a big idea, and I was particular about how I wanted to execute it, but I didn’t have the means or know-how to actually make it. I decided I should write a series that would serve as the backstory to the initial setting so I could fund the game’s development, so I made some notes to chart out the world, the major players within it, key events that would unfold over the course of the story, and then I sat down and started writing.

It was a learning experience as I researched how to format my book and checked out editing and cover services I ultimately could not afford. I ended up getting help from my mom for editing and did the visuals myself. I did have skills with image manipulation and texture generation from my time in Arizona after all, so I used what I had. Finally, after a year and multiple revisions of both the draft, cover, and emblem design, I published the first volume in 2009, and I’ve been at it ever since.

So, just to recap, this has been the timeline so far:

  • [2004] Firestar conceived but put on hold
  • [2008] Work begins on the first novel
  • [2009] Firestar: Deloran is published
  • [2011] Firestar: Advent is published
  • [2013] Firestar: Dissonance is published
  • [2015] Firestar: Subsistence is published
  • [2021] Firestar: Assessment is published
  • [2023] Firestar: Resonance is published

Writing this series has been a journey I wouldn’t trade for anything, and it’s grown significantly since I was first inspired by the idea. It started with a character and turned into a universe, and I’m still excited to see where things go from here.

Future Plans

I still have three more books to write in the Firestar series before it ends, but after that, I have another line of stories in mind that I’m already compiling notes for, and a series I already wrote but never finished that I want to convert into novels. These are looking at opposite ends of the grand timeline I have in place, but suffice it to say, there is plenty of material for me to work with. I figure I’ll be working out these tales for a long time.

Fun Facts

Here are some little insights into the books, the characters, and their backgrounds. Some will be quirky, some might be weird, and the rest might be silly, but this is all in good fun.

  • Darrio was originally conceived as a force character in Phantasy Star Online 2 for the Gamecube. He had a more whimsical background at the time. I put over 200 hours into that playthrough.
  • I grew up on video games starting with a hand-me-down Atari 2600. My first games were Q-Bert and Joust, so a lot of my influences come from the gaming world.
  • There’s a mountain of notes scattered across multiple reference documents I use for the world, characters, themes, and their relationships. That said, what makes it to the page is what’s canon, so some of my notes are sadly out of date.
  • I was inspired by the “Tactical Espionage Action” line on the covers of the Metal Gear Solid games to include “Fantasy Action Drama” on my own covers.
  • I originally planned to write ten books, but halfway through the series, I realized there was literally no reason for Darrio to return to the Frozen Realm, so he just…doesn’t.
  • These characters have a life of their own, and Seris was the most enigmatic figure for me to write. He was so guarded and hidden from me when I started, I didn’t really get a clear view of him until book two. He’s been remarkably subtle.

Don’t forget to check out my books. In fact, I recommend the first three that started me on creating this universe, and if you like what you see, please spread the word. Thank you for visiting and have a blessed day.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3