The Gray Lion

Joey Oliver was born just outside of San Francisco in September, 1998. His parents, Gina and Charlie, relocated him and his older brother Jake up to Seattle only a few years later. Joey grew up in Issaquah, a suburb just outside of Seattle, for most of his childhood. He attended public school from kindergarten up until the eighth grade. During his high school years, Joey and his brother were sent to O’Dea, an all-boys catholic school in the middle of downtown seattle. Joey considered his high school experience extremely formative, creating bonds that will persist throughout his entire life. While Joey was in high school, he discovered an inherent fascination with the creative process, which would ultimately lead him to dabble in writing. Joey played lacrosse during his time at O’Dea and was ultimately recruited to play in college. He committed to play lacrosse at New Jersey Institute of Technology in downtown Newark when he was a senior. After coming to regret this, he transferred around until ultimately ending up at Washington State University, where he intended to study architecture. Through the study of design, Joey was exposed to the mystical way that meaning can be bound to creation. Once shown this, his interest then percolated into all other forms of expression. Music, writing, sculpting, and design being what he felt most interested in. During his senior year of college, Joey began writing the outline of an idea he had a year prior. The idea was based around two brothers that fought on opposite sides of a revolution. Joey had heard a story that there was a documented case of two brothers having fought against each other during the American civil war. This concept intrigued him and sparked what would ultimately become his first novel: The Gray Lion. After college concluded, Joey stayed in Seattle for a short while having taken a job in the construction industry. Soon after, he took a new job down in Austin, Texas, working for a real estate development and general contracting company. He has been living down there since December of 2021.