I was born August 7, 1979 in Madison,WI. My writing career started at around age 5 when my parents took me to a paper mill and one of the employees gave me a free box of their product. The first thing I recall jotting down was an account of a nightmare I'd had involving an evil wall hanging. By age 7, I was filling notebooks with detailed, surreal narratives about adventurous stuffed animals, vicious pirates, and otherwordly dimensions. I dabbled a bit with poetry in my teen years, both traditional and rap. While attending UW-Madison, I started writing screenplays, first for a video production course, then for submission. When the studios failed to show significant interest in my work, I decided that writing a really cinematic novel would be my only passport to Hollywood success and that was how IVD was born. I am currently living on the East Side of Madison within walking distance of some of the locations used in the book. My biggest influences are current events and the many quirky characters I've encountered in my thirteen years in the grocery business.