I studied English at the University of Iowa, with a focus on writing and a semester in the Undergraduate Writers Workshop in Fiction.  I pursued screen writing in Los Angeles, but ultimately felt most satisfied when a project's final product was the written word.  So I wrote and self-published a novel, Deuced, that drew on my personal experiences in Hollywood as well as the existential horror I felt drawn to by the novels of Sartre.  I have worked in journalism for years, including an editorship at the Los Angeles Times.  I have been published in Opium Magazine, Tastes Like Chicken and Los Angeles CityBeat.  I also participated in the Vermin on the Mount reading series in LA's Chinatown.  I have since relocated to Brooklyn where I continue to write, as well as edit the Kirkus Discoveries program from the publishers of Kirkus Reviews. My influences are George Orwell, Sartre, Camus, Grant Morrison, David Sedaris and pop culture.