What is something unique/quirky about you? I perform with a group called Seadog Slam, in which myself and the other members dress in pirate garb and recite our original pirate and adventure poetry at various events. Tell something about yourself, and how you became an author. I started writing stories and poetry when I was around 13 years old. I’ve always had a vivid imagination, and entertained myself most of the time, either reading, writing, or spending time in nature, hiking, bicycling, or in boats on lakes. I started thinking about trying to publish some of my work during my early 20s, but nothing came of it at the time. It wasn’t until my late 30s that I got more serious about wanting to be a published author. I attended some writing workshops to try to hone my skills and see if my writing might have a chance of being publishable. My goal was to have a short story published before I turned 40. In the Fall of 2010, when I had just turned 39, I happened to start corresponding with author and editor Janet Morris online, through commenting on her posts regarding her latest novel The Sacred Band, which she had written with her husband Chris Morris. I had been a big fan of her Sacred Band of Stepsons characters from the Thieves’ World shared world anthology series and the spin-off novels about them that Janet wrote. When she found out I was a writer of many years, though unpublished, she told me that she and Chris were going to bring back the Heroes in Hell shared universe series, with the first book being an anthology of short stories by several authors, and they were looking for more writers to submit stories, and asked if I would write and submit a story for consideration in the first book titled Lawyers in Hell. She accepted my story, my first-ever to be published, when the book was released in the Summer of 2011, just about 3 months before my 40th birthday. Who is your hero, and why? My Dad, Larry Atchley Sr. is my hero. He has always been there for me when I needed him most, and he has always been a wonderful, loving father. He has done a lot to help various members of our extended family as well. What inspired you to write Unholiest Grail?  When I found out that there was going to be a Pirates in Hell volume, I knew I had to write a story for it. As I mentioned before, I am in a pirate performance group, so Pirates and their history and stories are something I have always been interested in. I knew right away that I would choose Henry Morgan for my main pirate character, and my story would deal with his legendary appetite for alcohol. In Hell, the damned cannot get drunk, and it would really chafe Morgan not to be able to get inebriated, so I came up with the idea of a magical chalice that would allow the damned to get drunk. Morgan would want to find it before anyone else. I also felt that having had my own share of trouble with alcohol on and off throughout my life that I could lend some personal perspective to the story and that might serve as a cathartic exercise. Tell us why your story is a must read.  Well it has action, adventure, pirates, vikings, the founder of the Church of Satan, and a surprise twist ending. If that’s not enough to make it extremely interesting, then I don’t know what is. What is your advice to new authors? Keep writing and improving your craft. Read a lot, and in a wide range of subjects, but get to know the genre or subject you want to write for especially well. It’s never too late and you’re never too old to become published. Don’t listen to your inner demon critics, and don’t let anyone cause you to feel like you aren’t good enough to write and be published.