Ismael Manzano was born and raised in New York City, and has lived his entire life in the Bronx, first with his parents, then with his lovely and talented wife, Justine, and now with their kinetic maelstrom of a child, Logan.Ismael is an avid reader of fantasy books, and knew at an early age that he wanted to be a writer. He worked his entire life to hone his craft to achieve the goal of removing the prefix, 'aspiring,' from his title.He has written many reviews and social commentaries for the web magazine, G-pop.net. Recently, Ismael has found success publishing his short stories, Playing in Shadows, at This Dark Matter (thisdarkmatter.com) and Cold, at Grey Matter. In 2015, Fantasy Works Publishing signed his Urban Fantasy series, Soul Broker.Ismael loves watching historical documentaries and listening to audio lectures about Medieval England, Ancient Rome, and Egypt. He considers himself an amateur historian, and has never met a BBC historical drama he didn't like. One of his favorite things to do is to watch shows like the Tudors and movies like Elizabeth, and try to pick out the discrepancies between fact and fiction. He also hopes to one day solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle, but that dream, sadly, seems to be the greatest fantasy of them all.