I was born and raised just outside of St. Louis and spent a lovely childhood reading comics and running around dressed as my ideal version of Superman (my ideal then being a Superman who wears shorts and cowboy boots. Just because.)

In college I studied creative writing and theater, then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Theater from the University of Alabama with a focus on Shakespeare. After that I ended up in New York City where I split my time between classical theater and writing about superheroes.

In 2007, I got seriouser about my writing (yep, wordsmith me) and attended the Clarion Writer's Workshop in San Diego. The six week workshop nearly killed me, but the sun was awfully nice and the people were swell.

In 2009, Knopf Books for Young Readers published my first novel, which was about (you guessed it) superheroes. The novel, Powerless, turned the popular trope of the "chosen one" on its head and instead focused on the bystander who becomes the hero. Powerless went on to spawn the popular The Supers of Noble's Green series, and I went on to write historical adventure for kids, science fiction for teens and retro-pulp for adults.

Today I live in Manhattan with my wife and son, and write (mostly) full time. I’m also on faculty at the Gotham Writer’s Workshop where I teach fiction writing and writing for children.

And I think about superheroes way too much.