Biography: Author & Storyteller Darryl A. Woods

My childhood in rural Ohio, 3 miles from a small town, gave me plenty of material for stories: tales of my father’s many contraptions fabricated from old parts, angle iron, and square tubing; lawnmowers powered by car engines; minibikes; and various types of cobbled together go-carts, including one with a bicycle front end, a car steering wheel and seat, and the back end of a cousin’s wrecked go-cart. Other stories include rural scenes related to gardening, playing in the creek, helping neighbors with livestock, growing up with numerous family pets and farm animals, and playing small-town high school football.

I graduated from college with a degree in Systems Analysis. While at school, I met my future wife and we married shortly after graduation. Inspired by my father, who built his own home and never called a repairman, I developed a passion for remodeling houses. My wife and I have remodeled four houses to date, swearing after each one never to start another. While working as a computer consultant designing databases, I spent my evenings and weekends helping my father-in-law with the family business, cutting timber, sawing lumber in his mill, and making pallets. These pursuits have given me an endless supply of stories, and their retelling over the years has enabled me to hone my skills as a storyteller.

If you’re interested in these stories, I am sending out two stories a month through my newsletter.

I have a passion for telling stories, an appetite for reading epic fantasy, and a love of old movies. I remember scenes in great detail, picturing the background, the clothing of the characters, and small nuances such as wrist bands, jewelry, or dogs crossing a street. Most of all, I’m fascinated by the emotions and actions of the characters. I spend a lot of time, usually as I wait for sleep, thinking through scenes, fleshing out details that were lacking, and creating different outcomes. As I developed the story for the Flight to Bericea series, the scenes flowed easily from my vivid imagination.

My favorite authors include Raymond Feist, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Brian Jacques, David Eddings, Christopher Paolini, Terry Goodkind, and Piers Anthony. With this collection of epic-fantasy authors, My chosen genre had to include epic adventures, swordplay, and magic.  My story telling and my love for fantasy compelled me to write The Summoned Ones, Book One in Flight to Bericea series.