A Creative Journey

Throughout my life I’ve lived boundlessly and continue to strive for new horizons.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been driven by both imagination and inquiry. My passion has always combined creativity and intellect, leading me to a life where my revolutionary instincts and artistic spirit continually inform one another. Through travel, history, photography, writing, and the remarkable people I’ve encountered along the way, I’ve come to see every experience as another chapter in a much larger story. Each destination, project, and conversation has shaped not only who I am, but the stories I tell as a novelist and the perspective I bring to my journalism. This gallery is a collection of those moments.

🌱 Chapter One — Creative Foundations

Storytelling became my sanctuary at an early age. Armed with little more than a vivid imagination and a notebook, I wrote childhood tales such as The Octopus’s Brunch and The Bird’s Nest, discovering the joy of creating worlds entirely my own. At just seven years old, I won first prize in Vancouver’s Fantastic Mom’s Contest, an experience that encouraged me to keep creating. Yet even as a child, one accomplishment was never enough. Every story I finished simply inspired me to begin another.

2002, Winning poem, age seven

As the years passed, that curiosity expanded beyond writing. I immersed myself in books, films, history, and photography, always searching for new ways to tell compelling stories. In high school, I found my home in the Film Program, where I thrived creatively and developed a series of crime-drama short films titled The Family Business. Supported by talented friends, dedicated teachers, and generous mentors, I began to understand the collaborative nature of filmmaking while refining my own voice as a storyteller. It was also during these years that the earliest concepts for what would eventually become Stars of the Allmaker first emerged, growing from scattered ideas into the foundations of an expansive fictional universe.

Following graduation, I traveled to New York City with a renewed sense of purpose before enrolling in the Television and Video Production program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Over the next two years, I gained hands-on experience across every stage of film production, serving as a writer, producer and director on numerous collaborative projects. The technical skills I developed were invaluable, but more importantly, they strengthened my confidence as a creator and reinforced my belief that storytelling, in whatever form it took, was the path I wanted to pursue.

In 2017, I graduated from BCIT with an ever-growing appetite for creativity and a determination to continue building ambitious projects. That same year, after countless late nights of writing, revising, and imagining, I completed the first draft of Stars of the Allmaker. Thousands of pages long, it was wildly overgrown, imperfect, and far from publication, but it was the realization of a dream that had been quietly taking shape for years.

While continuing to develop my creative skills, I gained invaluable experience working in the Vancouver film industry on a variety of television productions, contributing both in front of and behind the camera. These opportunities allowed me to refine my understanding of filmmaking in a professional environment while collaborating with talented crews across multiple disciplines.Beyond the film industry, my lifelong passion for Star Wars led me to join the 501st Legion under the callsign DS-42621. As part of this internationally-recognized costume organization, I participated in charity events, hospital visits, and community fundraisers, using the iconic characters of the galaxy far, far away to bring joy to children and support charitable causes.

My interest in costume design and character performance soon expanded beyond the 501st. Between 2018 and 2021, I collaborated with numerous photographers, makeup artists, and fellow cosplayers to create an extensive portfolio of cinematic photoshoots inspired by Star Wars, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Spiderman, Devil May Cry, Marvel, Mad Men, and original concepts. Through these collaborations, I established a dedicated online following under the name @BrokenCrownPictures, transforming cosplay into another creative outlet that blended storytelling, photography, performance, and visual artistry.

Although these projects varied greatly in style and subject matter, they all shared a common purpose: to tell stories through images. Each photoshoot became another opportunity to experiment with composition, character, and atmosphere, skills that would later influence both my writing and my approach to visual storytelling as an author and journalist.

🌎 Chapter Two —Between Two Worlds

By 2021, I found myself pulled in two very different directions. One path led toward literature, filmmaking, and the ever-growing world of Stars of the Allmaker. The other drew me toward history, politics, and a deepening fascination with Russia. For several years, these ambitions competed for my time and attention, each shaping who I was becoming in different ways. Looking back, I no longer see them as opposing forces, but as two halves of the same journey.

Rather than competing with one another, my dual passions gradually became intertwined. I immersed myself in literature, cinema, mythology, philosophy, and political thought, believing that every new idea had the potential to enrich both my understanding of the world and the stories I hoped to tell. Russian language study became a daily discipline, while countless books, films, and lectures expanded the intellectual foundations upon which my writing rested.

I invested in my health, refined my writing, developed new artistic skills such as violin, and challenged myself to learn far beyond the classroom through independent study and MasterClasses with writers, filmmakers, actors, and historians. Every small achievement felt like another step toward becoming the person I had always hoped to be. I would soon begin the steps of pursuing a degree in International Relations, teach English abroad, as well as working on Stars of the Allmaker

In early 2022, that carefully constructed path was suddenly interrupted. The start of the Ukraine conflict transformed what had once been distant interests into deeply personal realities. Travel plans collapsed, friendships were tested, and the future became uncertain almost overnight. Yet even amidst that uncertainty, I remained committed to the two ambitions that had come to define my life: completing Stars of the Allmaker and continuing my journey toward Russia.

Rather than bend to the will of geopolitics, I entered one of the most productive periods of my life. Outside the classroom, I made a conscious effort to place creativity at the center of my life. I immersed myself in the films of Sergei Eisenstein, returned to practicing calligraphy, continued studying Russian every day, and devoted myself to Stars of the Allmaker whenever time allowed. These pursuits reminded me that personal fulfillment came not from proving myself to others, but from continually learning and creating.

During this complex period, I was employed at the Kozak Ukrainian Resteraunt, where I was able to practice Russian with colleagues. My placement there was almost fate, as I was given the oppertunity to see firsthand the impacts of the 2022 escalations on regular people. During this time I also completed my 120-hour TEFL certification, opening the possibility of teaching English abroad while continuing to write and travel. Amidst my studies, financing and language immersion, I was planning a grand life-changing expedition. What had started as a trip to Russia, had now grown to an ambitious and complex journey across Turkey, Egypt, and Russia.

The expedition, which I titled The Soviet Connection, became one of the defining experiences of my twenties. Meeting my future wife Lena in person, exploring the ancient landscapes of Egypt, wandering the medieval streets of Kars in Turkey, and finally arriving in Moscow brought years of study and imagination into reality. Standing in Red Square for the first time, visiting Lenin’s Mausoleum during the centenary of the Soviet Union, and walking through the campuses of Moscow State University and MGIMO forced me to confront a question that had lingered for years.

Should I dedicate myself to international politics, or to storytelling?

By the end of the journey, I realized those ambitions were not equal. Although politics and history would always remain lifelong passions, my greatest strength, and the contribution I most wanted to make, lay in creative writing. Stars of the Allmaker was no longer simply a hobby or a dream. It had become the work around which I wanted to build my life.

The Soviet Connection did more than introduce me to Russia. It clarified the direction of my future. I returned home with renewed confidence, determined to continue writing, keep exploring the world, and transform a decade of imagination into the series I had always envisioned.

🪆 Chapter Three —The Return to Russia

Returning from Russia in early 2023 gave me a renewed sense of purpose. The journey had answered many of the questions I had carried with me for years, but it also left me with new ones. Could I build a life that combined my passion for storytelling with my fascination for history, politics, and Russia? Or would I eventually have to choose between them?

Although I continued exploring opportunities in international relations and teaching, my creative ambitions never faded. I returned home determined to finish Stars of the Allmaker, writing some of the strongest chapters of the series while continuing my daily Russian studies. Even as uncertainty surrounded my future, creativity remained the constant that grounded me.Throughout the year, I pursued every opportunity that brought me closer to my long-term goals. I completed my TEFL qualification, returned to university through Langara College, continued studying Russian with instructors from Moscow State University, and sought teaching opportunities that might eventually allow me to return to Russia. Not every application was successful, but each experience reinforced my determination rather than diminishing it.

There were setbacks as well. University plans changed, job applications fell through, finances remained a constant concern, and balancing work, study, writing, and language learning often proved overwhelming. For the first time, I realized that ambition alone was not enough. Progress required focus, and trying to excel at everything often meant excelling at nothing. Learning to prioritize became one of the most valuable lessons of the year.

Amid those challenges came unexpected encouragement. I found myself exchanging messages with journalist Donald Courter, someone whose work I had admired for years. His willingness to offer advice and support made what had once seemed like an impossible dream, a professional future connected to Russia, feel suddenly tangible. It was a reminder that opportunities often appear only after years of quiet preparation.

By the end of 2023, I had completed my first university courses, earned my TEFL qualification, continued making steady progress in Russian, reduced my debt, and advanced Stars of the Allmaker further than ever before. More importantly, I had stopped seeing my interests as competing ambitions. History, politics, travel, journalism, and literature were no longer separate pursuits. Together, they were shaping the perspective I wanted to bring to my writing.

By the beginning of 2024, years of preparation were finally beginning to bear fruit. Daily Russian study, university courses, TEFL certification, writing, travel, and countless hours of planning had all been leading toward a single objective: returning to Russia to build a new life. The opportunities that had once seemed distant were suddenly becoming real.

That determination paid off in March when I accepted a teaching position with a Business English school, following a successful interview and demonstration lesson. For the first time, the dream I had nurtured for years was no longer hypothetical. Flights were booked, visas approved, debts paid, and plans transformed into reality. As I prepared to leave Canada, I also continued writing Stars of the Allmaker, producing new chapters while documenting my journey through what would become the Maple Moscow video series.

Returning to Moscow in May 2024 was both familiar and transformative. I reunited with Lena and her family, settled into my new apartment, and began teaching English immediately. Between lessons, I continued writing, filming, and exploring the city that had occupied my imagination for so many years. The routine I had envisioned from across the world had finally become everyday life.One of the most unexpected experiences of the summer came through my friendship with Donald Courter. Through him I met journalists, commentators, and political activists from across the world, visited studios, and found myself participating in conversations I had once only imagined from afar. Those encounters broadened my understanding of international media and politics, but they also reinforced an important realization. While I valued those experiences immensely, I wanted my lasting legacy to be built through literature rather than political commentary. Stars of the Allmaker remained the work I most wanted to dedicate my life to.

Years of preparation had quietly transformed into everyday reality. I had become an English teacher in Moscow, continued studying Russian, expanded my work as both a writer and journalist, and spent my free time exploring one of the world’s great capitals while continuing to develop Stars of the Allmaker. The dreams that had once existed only in notebooks and five-year plans had become ordinary parts of my daily routine.

Teaching proved especially rewarding. Beyond simply helping students improve their English, I found genuine satisfaction in building relationships across cultures and seeing their confidence grow. At the same time, I continued refining my Russian through Moscow State University, exploring Moscow’s museums, libraries, theatres, and historic neighborhoods, finding constant inspiration for both my writing and my understanding of the country I had come to call home.

Throughout the second half of 2024, Mystery of the Black Moon finally reached completion after more than a decade of development. What had begun as an ambitious teenage fantasy had become a finished novel, ready to begin its journey toward publication. Alongside it came the launch of my author website, new creative collaborations, and the first steps toward building a long-term career as an independent writer.

The year also brought unforgettable personal moments. I travelled throughout Moscow and the surrounding regions, attended cultural events, historical commemorations, and conferences, met remarkable people from many different backgrounds, and continued documenting my experiences through the Maple Moscow video series. Every experience, whether teaching a classroom, filming a new video, exploring a museum, or sitting in a quiet cafe writing another chapter, became another thread woven into my creative life.

The defining moment, however, had nothing to do with politics, publishing, or career.On 17 November 2024, standing atop the Ostankino Tower overlooking the city that had transformed my life, I asked Lena to marry me. She said yes. In that moment, the journey that had begun years earlier as a dream of studying Russian and visiting Moscow became something far greater. Russia was no longer simply a destination or an intellectual fascination. It had become home.