About

I’m a husband and parent. A teacher. A traveler.

But at my core I’m a lover of stories…

Born and raised in Wisconsin, even as a boy, I loved reading books and writing stories, mostly fantasies to escape my reality. I read books like The Chronicles of Narnia and Goosebumps, and created comic books, like ones about the adventures of the Easter Bunny and his amazing egg-painting factory.

As a teenager, I read books by Dean Koontz (I believe all of them!) and Stephen King and wrote a lot of poetry. I think I was learning the craft of storytelling in those days…The emotions of a beautifully written line, the suspence of an intriguing plot.

In college, I read a ton of classics and literary fiction, books like I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb and On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I also wrote essays like crazy, staying up in the middle of the night, acquiring my taste for coffee, black of course. I was perfecting my understanding of theme.

As a high school English teacher, I devoured young adult novels, learning what makes a teenager tick. Writing curriculum for my classroom, producing school-wide projects and activities, and applying for world-wide grants and fellowships, I was not only inspired by the pride in achieving a well-planned goal, but also by the notion of having a clear objective when writing.

For the last ten years, I’ve been reading everything under the sun, trying to absorb as many diverse books as I can. I’ve also listened to people’s stories as I traveled the world, and shared my own stories with them. I’ve been writing novels…Four and a half of them to be exact. It’s been a difficult journey, full of obstacles and struggles, but I’ve finally published my first novel.

Reading and writing – storytelling – has taught me how to better understand the human experience. I’m excited to continue to hear and tell stories throughout my life.