About
The ability to tell a story in a clear and concise manner that anybody can understand has always been my strength and my passion.
When I’m not writing a new story, I’m usually reading a new story, watching a new story, or walking around observing the world around me while putting together a new story in my mind. Like a mathematician thinks in numbers, an athlete thinks in physical movements, and a musician thinks in notes and verses, I think in story.
I will always enjoy the thrill of invention and the freedom of exploration that comes with writing fiction, but since 2019 I have also developed a passion for creating compelling narratives based on actual events, and I have found telling true stories as faithfully as possible to be as rewarding as it is challenging. That passion has led to the completion of my newest non-fiction book titled After The Flames, which has been published by Dundurn Press, and is now available at Dundurn Press, Amazon, Indigo, and select bookstores.
Some of the storytellers that have inspired me over the years include, Joseph Heller, Cervantes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nas, Alejo Carpentier, Graham Greene, Wu-Tang Clan, Dante, Dostoyevsky, Masta Ace, Elena Poniatowska, Tolstoy, Jay-Z, Tucker Max, Violeta Parra, Solzhenitsyn, Juan Rulfo, Jose Saramago, David Milch, Eminem, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kendrick Lamar, Vince Gilligan, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Notorious B.I.G., Rosario Castellanos, C.L.R. James, Joseph Conrad, David Simon, Steinbeck, Rodolfo Walsh, Toni Morrison, DMX, Hemingway, Jose Rizal, Honore de Balzac, Alan Moore, Victor Hugo, Hunter S. Thompson, Malcolm X, Dave Chappelle, Robin Williams, Slick Rick, Vonnegut, Anabel Hernandez, Residente, V.S. Naipul, OutKast, Luis Bunuel, Jonny Steinberg, Stanley Kubrick, AZ, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Richard Wright, Tupac Shakur, Eduardo Galeano, Mobb Deep, Stephen Biko, Donald Woods, Francis Ford Coppola, Noah Hawley, James Baldwin, John Kennedy Toole, Victor Jara, Weird Al Yankovic, Brad "Scarface" Jordan, Robert Harvey, Mark Twain, RA The Rugged Man, Chinua Achebe, and many, many more.
An avid traveler since I was 18, I have been to dozens of countries, all of which have exposed me to an array of perspectives from a variety of people. Travel is an addiction to me, so when I’m not somewhere else I’m almost always thinking about being somewhere else, and it’s those travels, which included living in Mexico for a decade and Argentina for 2 years, that have led to the creation of the novels, Carrion, The Spirit of Laughter, Wedlock and my first Spanish language book, a YA novel called Gato y Lobo, which was independently released and read by high school students in the Mexican states of San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, and Puebla, as well as Mexico City.
In addition to creative storytelling, I have been writing copy with a heavy emphasis on proper SEO practices for various clients in the food & beverage and travel industries since 2017.
Since 2020 I have prepared over 80 Humanitarian and Compassionate Applications for Canadian refugees in hopes of preventing their deportation and securing their permanent residency. This work is incredibly rewarding because it enables me to understand and absorb real stories by the people who have lived every word, stories that I then get to interpret and rewrite as compellingly and empathetically as my abilities permit, all for the purpose of helping the people who shared those stories with me attain what they have worked so hard to get. If that doesn't illustrate the power of storytelling then I don't know what to tell you.