Born in the mid-90s in a small, Oregon logging town along the Columbia River, Brian McBride has always loved stories. Whether it was reading Hardy Boys into the night or playing make-believe in the back yard, his life has revolved around tall tales and parables. As a child, the first story he ever penned was a mystery series about a boy and his horse. At fourteen, Brian finished his first full-length fantasy novel and self-published it at 16, though it would eventually be pulled from publication to be enjoyed as a personal triumph now memorialized in only a handful of libraries. It wasn’t until Brian was 20 that he finally ventured wholeheartedly into the publishing industry with his debut contemporary novel, Love and the Sea and Everything in Between. Prior to its publication, Love and the Sea and Everything in Between soared to success on Wattpad and won the 2016 Wattys award. Published in 2018, Love and the Sea and Everything in Between went on to win the Eric Hoffer Award while placing as a finalist in the Readers’ Favorite Awards.

Just months after his debut, Brian released his sophomore contemporary novel, Every Bright and Broken Thing. In 2020, Every Bright and Broken Thing won the Indie Book Awards. Fast forward a few months later, and Brian’s third contemporary novel, Sons of Slaughter, set in his hometown of Clatskanie, Oregon, hit shelves in the Fall of 2019. With three novels published in the span of 12 months, Brian moved onto his fourth, We the Wild Things, which published in 2021. In Spring of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Brian launched Irewolf, which doubled both as an online mercantile, specializing in story-inspired candles, as well as a small publication press. In Spring of 2022, almost exactly two years later, the mercantile was shut down until it was reopened a year later as Parable Candle Co. During this time away from his entrepreneurial endeavors, Brian embarked on a new literary journey, publishing his new adult adventure novel Mammoth in May 2022 and its sequel, Titan, in November 2022. Mammoth fast became a fan favorite and one of Brian’s most beloved, bestselling, and critically acclaimed works.

Raised in a pastor’s home in the wake of the Brownsville Revival of 1995 and its far-reaching effects in churches all over the nation, including his own church in little Clatskanie, OR, Brian’s faith exists at the center of all that he does. After years of intellectual pursuit and Biblical scholarship, Brian received his Ministerial Certificate and became a credentialed pastor in the Summer of 2022. Brian currently serves on staff as executive pastor at Encounter City Church in Santa Rosa, CA, where his parents also pastor. Their mission is to see their city marked by the revelation and demonstration of the fullness of the glory of the Lord. As both a minister of the Gospel and a creatively inspired individual, Brian exists to be both steward and storyteller. Every gift given is a seed to be tended, that it may grow and multiply to the glory of God. Every story written and told is an invitation into the discovery of the fullness and nature of Jesus Christ, for He Himself was the Master storyteller. There is no power so limitless and timeless as the power of parable.