[2] Schend grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and started gaming in high school; he attended college in Madison, and graduated with a degree in English in 1989.
[1] He previously worked as a teacher, a street sweeper, a concrete curb builder and a landscaper before gaining employment in fantasy.
[1] Schend worked for over fifteen years with TSR, Inc., Wizards of the Coast, and other game companies as an editor, a designer, an assistant manager, and world builder.
[3] Schend works as a bookseller, and also writes novels, novellas, and short stories from the Forgotten Realms to his own contemporary fantasies.
His design work includes several products for the Forgotten Realms line, such as City of Splendors: Waterdeep (1994), Undermountain: Maddgoth's Castle (1996), Undermountain: The Lost Level (1996), Lands of Intrigue (1997), Hellgate Keep (1998), Cormanthyr: Empire of the Elves (1998), Wyrmskull Throne (1999), Skullport (1999), and Sea of Fallen Stars (1999).