I have always had several things going on at once.
I write books. I compose and record music. I spend a fair amount of time thinking about why people do what they do, including me. Skyward Productions is where those parts of my life finally stopped pretending they were separate.
Music came first. I started playing piano when I was young and quickly discovered that I was much better at playing what I heard in my head than what someone had written on the music stand. That has remained true. I compose largely by instinct, working through an idea until it sounds like what I was trying to say. Sometimes that takes an afternoon. Sometimes it takes a year.
Writing arrived differently. I did not grow up planning to write books. I wrote because I had something I wanted to examine and could not quite leave alone. One book led to another, and eventually I had a body of work that ranged from sarcasm and popular music to Stoicism, mythology, artificial intelligence, and the strange distance between what we think we know and what may actually be true.
The subjects vary, but the underlying interest is fairly consistent. I am interested in how people make sense of their lives. I am interested in what we overlook, what we assume, and what becomes visible when we stay with a question a little longer than is comfortable.
I have also spent most of my professional life working with people, organizations, technology, education, and change. That work has taught me that clarity is rare, certainty is often premature, and the official explanation is not always the useful one. It has also given me a great deal of material.
Skyward began as a practical home for my creative work. Over time, it became something more personal. It is where books, music, essays, and unanswered questions can coexist without needing to justify their relationship to one another.
I live in central Illinois, where the landscape is flat, the weather is unreasonable, and there is plenty of room to think. My piano is never far away. Neither is my dog, Candy, who contributes very little to the actual work but remains closely involved in quality control.
This site is still growing. Some work here is polished and complete. Some of it is in progress. The Journal is where I will share updates, reflections, studio notes, and whatever else seems worth saying. I make no promises about a strict publishing schedule. I have learned that creative work rarely improves because someone put it on a recurring calendar.
If something here interests you, follow it. If it raises a question, sit with it. If you simply came to look around, that is fine too.
Thanks for visiting!