All my life I’ve told stories. As a kid, I invented complicated lives for my action figures or ran around the backyard pretending I played for the Yankees. My father taught me never to let a fact get in the way of a good story; my mother shared her love of books and films, shaping the way I see the world. Storytelling was my first language.

Later, stories became a refuge, then an excuse. I told myself I didn’t need to write that paper or show up for that class. I told myself I didn’t need to think about the future or confront what I saw in the mirror. I told myself I was fine, even as my drinking told me otherwise.

But it was stories that helped me get sober. Stories of a brighter future, as implausible and far-fetched as the lies I once used to protect my drinking. Still, I kept telling them until they began to take shape. I finished my degree. I moved in with the love of my life. I learned to cook, repaired broken relationships, and began to think seriously about what I wanted to do with my life.

There was really only one answer: writing. For years I lied and pretended I was already working on a book; eventually, I had to make that lie true. My first efforts were clumsy, but they carried a spark. If I could quit drinking, I could learn to write. I persevered, kept at the desk, and pushed through rejection with the same stubborn resolve that had saved my life.

My debut novel, A Campus on Fire, was published in April 2025 by Regal House Publishing. It explores power, politics, and ideology at an elite university, and has been featured at bookstore and campus events across New Jersey. It was recently named a Finalist for the 2025 American Fiction Award in the Political Thriller category. Library Journal called it “a stunner, with a devastating ending.” The novel has also been featured in Shelf Awareness, Brit+Co, Writer’s Digest, Union News Daily, and the New York Public Library’s round-up of notable new campus thrillers.

I have several other completed novels. One is a satirical haunted house story about the modern housing market, where the promise of homeownership turns darkly literal. Another is a contemporary literary thriller about a disillusioned professor drawn into the orbit of a radical student movement. And another is a work of historical fiction set in the days after Jesus’s crucifixion, when rival visions of faith and power struggle to define the future of the early Church.

I live in New Jersey with my partner, Cassie, and our two cats, Toffee and Basil. Without Cassie I wouldn’t be here. She was the one who helped me get sober, pushed me to finish school, encouraged me to write, and reminded me I was a good person even when I couldn’t see it myself. Every good thing in my life traces back to her.

I write because I can’t not. I write because stories have always been the way I make sense of the world, and the way I try, however imperfectly, to change it.