Robert Lombardo was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania. He was majoring in communications at the University of Phoenix, the online campus, at the time of his arrest in February 2008, and continued to study writing and language while in prison. While incarcerated, he has taken a creative writing course at Stratford Career Institute, watched college lectures on DVD from “The Great Courses,” and read numerous books on grammar, syntax, rhetoric, usage, story, screenwriting, freelance writing, and prose style. Without this time in prison, he says he wouldn’t have had the time to learn all the things he has about language, and he is thankful to God for it. An avid reader, his favorite series is Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time.”