About me: My name is Brendan Leonard, and I started this website in 2011. I think we all need to spend more time doing things we love, going to places that make us feel small, remembering to laugh at ourselves, and getting a little cold, tired, and scared every once in a while. I’ve bicycled across America, run several ultramarathons, and lived out of a converted van for three years, climbing and adventuring in the mountains around the West.
I am a writer, and most of my work centers around adventure, travel, and human experiences with both of those. I’m a contributing editor at Adventure Journal and a columnist at Outside. My stories have appeared in Backpacker, National Geographic Adventure, Outside, Men’s Journal, Sierra, Adventure Cyclist, and other publications. My books are available here.
About Semi-Rad.com: I created Semi-Rad.com to as a channel for those of us who aren’t elite climbers, skiers, ultrarunners, and alpinists—the folks who love to get out there, but maybe don’t take it too seriously. Semi-Rad is enthusiasm for things regular folks can do, adventures for the everyperson. It’s a web site for those of us crushing it, kind of. I hope you enjoy it.
FAQs
- Do you draw custom charts or sketches similar to the ones on your Instagram account?
Yes. Email me about that here. - Can I buy you coffee and pick your brain for some advice on how to get started as a writer/filmmaker/creative?
Sorry, no, but here’s a blog post I wrote about that, and here’s a very inexpensive and brief book I wrote about it (the Kindle edition is about the price of one cup of coffee, and the paperback is about the price of two cups of coffee). - Can you come speak in my hometown?
I’d love to. The cost depends on what type of talk you’re looking for. More info on that here, or e-mail me about it here. - I noticed you have self-published some books and worked with book publishers on others. Do you have any advice on which is better?
I wrote a piece about that here. - Do you accept guest blog posts on Semi-Rad.com?
No. - Can I buy signed copies of your books?
Yes. They’re all in the Shop. - Did you have a TV show on ABC Family in 2003?
I did not—that was a different guy named Brendan Leonard, who has archived all the episodes of that show here.