Austin Chambers

Howdy! It's no secret—my name is Patrick, and I write fiction under the pen name Austin Chambers. Currently I stick with disaster and war-themed post-apocalyptic tales, though in the near-future I will try another genre or two, most likely under my actual name.

I grew up in Texas, but I yearned to see the world. I joined the U.S. Navy in July 1988, deploying on USS Truxtun (CGN-35) on two major deployments to the Persian Gulf, with one two-month special op in between. Sixteen months out of forty-eight spent at sea was enough. "Heavy sweatter" is not descriptive enough of how hot I run. As in not actually running. Just standing still. So I opted to stay in the milder climate of the Silverdale, Washington area. I went from Gunner's Mate to job hopping and settled-in for the long haul as a father, husband and career government civilian.

I felt service to my community calling once more. I started volunteering as a firefighter and EMT. I landed a coveted role doing that at the nearby submarine base in 1996... and got laid off with nine others 16-months later. But God was watching out for me (despite myself.) I was slowly developing adult onset asthma. The wisdom of years behind me has forced me to acknowledge that trying to do that job with asthma may've very well killed me and endangered other firefighters. In 1999, I was fortunate enough to land my old shipyard job again.

Despite having gone to college for a Fire Command and Administration degree, I still did not take preparedness seriously. In 2001, I rode a very wobbly scaffold in a dry-dock in a 6.8 earthquake. That was the day a seed for writing Cascadia Fallen had been planted; and why one of the sub-plots involves a Navy shipyard. I worked my way up from shipwright to general foreman. I left once more in 2021, burnt out on my career as a manager... not possessing any passion for the remaining five years needed to reach minimum retirement age. So once again—I quit.

Mostly what I've been doing the years since can be described as "soul searching." In 2020, I finally started seeking counseling for lifeline clinical depression. And though I'm much better, it is still a daily fight to remember my sense of self-worth and not play chess in my head (with what I think everyone else is thinking.) The last four years have been about re-finding the discipline to exercise, eat right, and not talk mean to myself in my thoughts. I'm finally taking the author gig seriously, committing to the process of improving my craft, putting out great books, and learning to sell them.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my website. Feel free to drop a line via email! 👊🏻