about me
I have taught English at Rensselaer Central High School since 2006. During this time, I have taught all four grades, but until last year I have always taught either American or British Literature. This year I teach the AP Literature and Composition course for seniors, English 11 (American Literature), an SAT/PSAT prep course in the spring, and an English Lab in the fall.
I love words, I love the classics, and I love to write. I have written three novels (Maniac Tuba; Ghosty: This Fenceless World; Ghosty: White Cloud, Blue Mountain) and have co-authored an anthology of short stories (Monsters).
From 2000-2004 I was in the US Army, and was deployed with the 101st Airborne to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Arabic translator/radio intercept operator.
In 2011 I was awarded an Eli Lilly grant to research/fact checks my novels in England for two months. In July 2014 I received an NEH grant to study existentialism at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts. Last summer I helped a friend do research for a book of literary non-fiction on the Jicarilla Apache Indian reservation in New Mexico.
I have a master's degree in English Literature from Mercy College (NY) and bachelor's degrees in Communications and in Applied Music from Saint Joseph's College. I also did graduate work in piano performance at Ball State University, winning the Graduate Concerto Competition there in 1992.
I have been married to my wife, a pastry chef, for 21 years, and have three children. We also have a dog, Apollo, a Newfoundland/Border Collie mix.
I love words, I love the classics, and I love to write. I have written three novels (Maniac Tuba; Ghosty: This Fenceless World; Ghosty: White Cloud, Blue Mountain) and have co-authored an anthology of short stories (Monsters).
From 2000-2004 I was in the US Army, and was deployed with the 101st Airborne to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom as an Arabic translator/radio intercept operator.
In 2011 I was awarded an Eli Lilly grant to research/fact checks my novels in England for two months. In July 2014 I received an NEH grant to study existentialism at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts. Last summer I helped a friend do research for a book of literary non-fiction on the Jicarilla Apache Indian reservation in New Mexico.
I have a master's degree in English Literature from Mercy College (NY) and bachelor's degrees in Communications and in Applied Music from Saint Joseph's College. I also did graduate work in piano performance at Ball State University, winning the Graduate Concerto Competition there in 1992.
I have been married to my wife, a pastry chef, for 21 years, and have three children. We also have a dog, Apollo, a Newfoundland/Border Collie mix.