While I was born in Caracas, what I truly call home is a tiny beach town in the eastern state of Anzoátegui called Boca de Uchire. Because of my father's job as an expatriate for a Canadian institution, my family moved from country to country for most of my early life. The one constant for us has been this sleepy town, part of which is nestled in a narrow isthmus and flanked by the Caribbean ocean to the north and the Unare lagoon to the south. Featured prominently in The Onyx Compendium (the second book of the Back to the Universe trilogy), this locale is rich with folklore and local mythology, most notably the caverns Las Fauces del Diablo (The Devil's Jowls) and the legend of the vengeful ghost of La Sayona.

As part of his job as a Risk Manager for the CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), my father was transferred from Caracas, Venezuela to La Lucila, a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was very young, about 3-years-old, but remember this beautiful city fondly. Our stay was short-lived however, as less than a year later my father was transferred once again.

From a Winter Wonderland, my father was then transferred to a Tropical Paradise. We spent five years in Nassau, Bahamas, and I credit this period of my life as one of the most influential in my future writing career. Brimming with history and tradition, the legends and mythos of the Bahamas are infused with an incredible lore that dates to pre-Columbian times. The creation story of the Bahamas (perhaps my all-time favorite) is retold at length in The Onyx Compendium. Also notable is the hidden island of Arawak Cay, created specifically for The Darkest Dread, and is inspired by Blue Lagoon Island, a few short miles from Nassau.

We immigrated to the United States with yet another transfer from the CIBC. This time my father was stationed in the Manhattan offices and we settled in Stamford, a small city right on the Tri-State line, in Connecticut. I came of age in Stamford and those colorful experiences are prominently displayed in the first book of the Back of the Universe trilogy, The Emerald Tome. My family would remain in Stamford for eight years, four of which I spent out of state for college.

While at Purdue, I had the opportunity to study abroad and chose Seville. This historic city becomes the backdrop of an important event in the The Serpent Goddess. Brimming with history, one of the elements featured in The Onyx Compendium is a retelling of Tirso De Molina's tragic comedy El Burlador De Sevilla (The Trickster of Seville). Inspired by Miguel de Cervantes, the retelling is speckled with elements of Cervantes' opus, Don Quixote. Seville, aside from inspiring some of the deeper and more complicated characters in my writing, is also the place where I met my future wife. Her home is in Badolatosa, a tiny town in the outskirts of Seville, and is featured in a parallel story told in The Onyx Compendium.

After completing my residency in foot and ankle surgery at Mercy Hospital in Miami, I took a job in Sarasota. As it tends to happen to most young doctors, the following years were the busiest of my career. Professionally, these years were instrumental to growing as a surgeon and the experience gained was invaluable. Unfortunately, this meant that other projects and passions (most notably writing) had to be put on hold. Still, the experiences of a doctor navigating the ever complicated medical system coupled with unusual and extraordinary medical cases have served to bolster my writing with true-to-life accounts and medical realism as exemplified in The Darkest Dread.