Phillip Dominic Cortez was born in El Paso, Texas where he became fascinated with books and stories at a very early age. It wasn’t long before he wanted to write his own stories.

“I was always making up stories to try and get out of trouble anyway,” he laughs. “But that sort of comes with the territory when you’ve got four brothers.”

Cortez began his career as a freelance sports writer, writing stories for his local paper and later moving onto writing editorials and feature stories for different publications. His children’s book, “Night Rhythms,” was published in 2011 followed by “When I Close My Eyes” in 2013.

Cortez turned his attention to Social Emotional Learning and the well-being of the children reading his books in the 2018 book, "#TheHappyManifesto - Three Rules For Happier Students." As a result, The Better Than Good Blog was launched in 2019.

Cortez still loves to read and, with his wife, Patty, is now fascinated by the many stories told by their four children: Ivan, Cameron, Ava and Zoe.