I'm a writer and recovering finance professional, father of three and husband of one. I enjoy clean living and dirty jokes and love old dogs and small gestures because simple, sincere and content offers the best lighting to experience the world.
After developing an early passion for writing in high school, I neglected the call of the arts to chase a paycheck. I rediscovered writing years later as a way to share life lessons with my two young sons who, it turns out, enjoy stories more than speeches. I write about the points in life that force us to pay attention to how we are living, because the power of being able to choose what we do in the next moment fascinates me. I write about tragedy, recovery and hope.

I grew up in the Chicago suburb of LaGrange Park and had the best summer job in the world as a golf caddie. I attended college on the “Chick” Evans Scholarship for financially-needy golf caddies at the University of Illinois and spent several years of my adult life in the Midwest, Colorado and London. My wife and I currently live in Vermont with our sons and a energetic young dog with zero manners named Monty. 

When not writing or being taught the rules of life by my sons, I pretend to be the seventeen-year-old main character of my upcoming novel by participating in endurance sports with no goal other than to avoid injuring myself.

My work includes the Mad Gorilla Writes website and newsletter; miscellaneous works of short fiction, non-fiction essays and observations on the writing life; an upcoming coming-of-age novel titled A Reason to Run; and Benny the Pug Goes on an Adventure, a children’s book published under the pen name Jim Edwards (a play on my sons’ names). My short fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Cold Lake Anthology and Zig Zag Lit Mag. My story The Golden Boy took first place in Flash Fiction Magazine's summer 2023 writing contest.

Wondering why my website is called Mad Gorilla Writes? Years ago my son told his pre-school teachers to pronounce his last name "mad gorilla." Since then it's become one of our family's many inside jokes. It also inspired the name of one of the characters in my upcoming book, although given Sam Bags's last name is Bagliarello, the character is called Bad Gorilla.