About

Hi, my name is Justin. I'm thirty-five years old. I cohabitate with my partner of eight years. I'm a dad of two doggos -- their names are Minerva & Bellatrix. (Yes, based on Minerva McGonagall and Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter.) I formerly had two cats who have both crossed the rainbow bridge - Clu and Fiona. (Yes, after the characters in the 1999 Disney tv series "So Weird") I once had a bird named Tommy and a dog named Dill after Tommy and Dill Pickles from The Rugrats.

I am the son of a Catholic father and a non-religious mother. My mother's side of the family are Mormon - somehow I got lucky and avoided that cult disguised as a church/religion. I guess you could consider me a lapsed Catholic who no longer practices any religion at all but bases his faith and spirituality in the Jedi belief system.

One could say I am a Browncoat, a rebel with a cause, a seeker of truth and justice, a misfit, a troublemaker, a round peg in a square hole, someone just crazy enough to dream big and believe I can change the world, and most importantly- divergent. One who believes The Matrix is real and can be broken free from. One who will never bow down or bend the knee to the demands of The Capitol.

I am a member of the vertically challenged club. Much like Frodo Baggins, and unlike Samwise Gamgee, I love a good adventure and traveling the world. It is my goal - a dream - to one day walk The Camino de Santiago from St. Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela and then on to Muxia. My past adventures have taken me to Montego Bay, Jamaica - Dublin, Ireland - London, England - Edinburgh, Scotland - and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I had a several hour layover in Stockholm, Sweden but never got to step foot outside the airport.

For those of you who are curious- yes, yes I did indeed visit The Hotel de Filosoof in Amsterdam where I took a photo of my copy of The Fault In Our Stars under the hotel sign. Unfortunately, I didn't get tickets to the Anne Frank Huis or Van Gogh museum. I wish I had stayed a few days longer to visit those two places. I also made a point of it to stop at the Homomonument where the onion ninjas got me. 

I am a writer of investigative journalism as well as fictional short stories. I used to write poems but that isn't my jam anymore. I've tried my hand at stage play and movie scripts but I was never very good at it. I have attempted - and failed - NaNoWriMo more than once. I guess long-form novels aren't my jam, either.

I truly believe in the theory of the more you read the better you write. I am absolutely a bibliophile and well-read. I firmly believe my writing style is a culmination of all the authors I have ever read. Over the years I have been able to craft a voice all my own. I have been told my writing style is reflective of Hunter S. Thompson which, in my opinion, is very high praise.

I wanted to create my own publishing press in order to have total creative control over my books. I wanted to be able to work for myself and no one else. Creating my own publishing press is something I never expected I would do.

I do, in fact, have a Field of Dreams... because when you're born in Chicago you're blessed and you're healed the first time you walk into Wrigley Field. There's magic in the ivy and the old scoreboard - the same one I used to stare at as a kid keeping score. I had a lifelong dream of seeing the Cubs win the World Series and see them win the whole damn thing I did. Someday no more for we did go all the way. My Cubbies taught me how to have faith and hope in even the darkest of times. They taught me how to never give up and persevere.

Which is where Bricks & Ivy Press was born. The name is inspired by the bricks & ivy in the outfield of Wrigley Field. It is my home. It is my happy place. It is my church. It is my sanctuary. It is the one place in this world where I "fit in" and "belong."