Defining Mike:
My Story
I am a work in progress—and I mean that as a promise, not an apology. Every day, I try to become one percent better: a sharper thinker, a stronger creator, a wiser man, and a better father still working toward becoming a great one. I am a lifelong learner because certainty is a locked room, and I have never been good at staying inside. I read, question, listen, fail, revise, and begin again. Somewhere along the way, I became a Lloyd Dobler who found his Diane Court—the impossible person who made the noise of the world fall away long enough to hear what mattered.
I have created and self-published three graphic novels, pulling each one from the private weather of imagination and giving it weight, color, paper, and a place in the world. That work has taught me that ideas are easy; finishing is the real act of courage. Every page demands patience, collaboration, stubbornness, and faith in something that does not exist yet. I keep creating because stories can outlive fear, failure, rejection, and the voices that tell us to be practical. The next story is already there, scratching at the door, and I intend to let it in.
