Jake Stowell
Jake was raised in Orange County, California. He grew up in an athletic family, but he always had a bookish side. As a child, Jake devoured popular fantasy like The Chronicles of Narnia, the Harry Potter series and the Inheritance Cycle. Prompted by the incredible movies, he read The Lord of the Rings far too young.
Jake identified with being an athlete for most of his early years. He played baseball since he could walk, and played four years of football. He celebrated the early 2000's successes of the Anaheim Angels and learned the meaning of disappointment as an Oakland Raiders fan. Though Jake aced school essays, he never considered writing a hobby until the end of high school.
A combination of Avatar: The Last Airbender, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Batman Begins finally inspired Jake to start brainstorming characters for The Gauntlet. He was soon obsessed with his creation, constantly nagging family and friends with scenes, codenames, and special abilities. What if a medieval English royal learned Kung Fu? What if the damsel in distress rescued herself? What if they all came together at a Robin Hood-style archery competition?
As Jake began to write, he descended deeper into the rabbit hole of nerdom. Like a snake shedding its skin, the athlete identity faded into the background. He discovered comic books in his freshman year at college. Batman: Knightfall seemed as good a place to start as any. He devoured lore and books as The Gauntlet slowly took shape.
Jake chipped away at the story, outlining, writing, and sending chunks of chapters to any family members he could convince to open their email. As Jake graduated with his bachelor's degree in biology, The Gauntlet was nearing completion. Jake married his high school sweetheart Kelly in the summer of 2017, just two months after The Gauntlet's release.
Jake's writing ideas were all over the place for a while. He brainstormed several board and card games, a couple comic books, and multiple novels. But what would he write next? There were too many ideas and no compelling reason to start any project over another. That's when Jake had an idea. A wonderful, brilliant, cop-out of an idea. He would let his readers decide what he'd write next.
Thus, What Next? was born! Jake decided to take the easy way out as an author by writing a chapter, editing it, recording it over audio, editing the audio, releasing this as a podcast episode, then asking people to vote on one of two options for the next episode. Jake would then write, edit, record.... Yeah, it was a lot of work.
But the results were worth it! Jake, with editing and social media help from his wife, finished the first story from What Next? Over the holidays of 2021, Jake released Not the Hero: The Story of Ariana Stance. Sadly, this D&D-inspired fantasy tale marked the end of the podcast.
Or so we thought! For, while Jake was busy working as a newly licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and raising his firstborn, Nathan, the embers of the author fire were still smoldering. Jake toyed with various story ideas, and ultimately scrapped the originally planned second story for What Next? in favor of a science fiction treasure hunt. This time around, Jake wanted to make things even easier on himself, so he decided to do everything as before with the addition of directing half a dozen voice actors and a narrator. Honestly, it's a wonder this modern-day Sisyphus ever completes anything.
And that brings us to today! Please look forward to what's next from Jake!
Here are some pictures of Jake's tots adorbs little family:
Jake identified with being an athlete for most of his early years. He played baseball since he could walk, and played four years of football. He celebrated the early 2000's successes of the Anaheim Angels and learned the meaning of disappointment as an Oakland Raiders fan. Though Jake aced school essays, he never considered writing a hobby until the end of high school.
A combination of Avatar: The Last Airbender, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Batman Begins finally inspired Jake to start brainstorming characters for The Gauntlet. He was soon obsessed with his creation, constantly nagging family and friends with scenes, codenames, and special abilities. What if a medieval English royal learned Kung Fu? What if the damsel in distress rescued herself? What if they all came together at a Robin Hood-style archery competition?
As Jake began to write, he descended deeper into the rabbit hole of nerdom. Like a snake shedding its skin, the athlete identity faded into the background. He discovered comic books in his freshman year at college. Batman: Knightfall seemed as good a place to start as any. He devoured lore and books as The Gauntlet slowly took shape.
Jake chipped away at the story, outlining, writing, and sending chunks of chapters to any family members he could convince to open their email. As Jake graduated with his bachelor's degree in biology, The Gauntlet was nearing completion. Jake married his high school sweetheart Kelly in the summer of 2017, just two months after The Gauntlet's release.
Jake's writing ideas were all over the place for a while. He brainstormed several board and card games, a couple comic books, and multiple novels. But what would he write next? There were too many ideas and no compelling reason to start any project over another. That's when Jake had an idea. A wonderful, brilliant, cop-out of an idea. He would let his readers decide what he'd write next.
Thus, What Next? was born! Jake decided to take the easy way out as an author by writing a chapter, editing it, recording it over audio, editing the audio, releasing this as a podcast episode, then asking people to vote on one of two options for the next episode. Jake would then write, edit, record.... Yeah, it was a lot of work.
But the results were worth it! Jake, with editing and social media help from his wife, finished the first story from What Next? Over the holidays of 2021, Jake released Not the Hero: The Story of Ariana Stance. Sadly, this D&D-inspired fantasy tale marked the end of the podcast.
Or so we thought! For, while Jake was busy working as a newly licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and raising his firstborn, Nathan, the embers of the author fire were still smoldering. Jake toyed with various story ideas, and ultimately scrapped the originally planned second story for What Next? in favor of a science fiction treasure hunt. This time around, Jake wanted to make things even easier on himself, so he decided to do everything as before with the addition of directing half a dozen voice actors and a narrator. Honestly, it's a wonder this modern-day Sisyphus ever completes anything.
And that brings us to today! Please look forward to what's next from Jake!
Here are some pictures of Jake's tots adorbs little family:
