To celebrate the Year 2000, Alex O’Brien took a leave of absence from his career as a human resources director to write. After an enjoyable and prolific sabbatical, highlighted by winning the lyric category of the USA Songwriting Contest (Drum Machines and Beauty Queens), Alex decided to devote his creative energy to writing permanently and resigned from his executive position. He spent the next fifteen years completing seven novels, a collection of short stories, a writer's memoir, eight plays, three musical books, two collections of poetry, and close to five-hundred song lyrics. This period brought much success and recognition including honourable mention for a poem and a play in the 2001 Writer’s Digest Writing Competition (In My Garden and Horseshoe Reflections), second place in the singer-songwriter category of the 2002 Dallas Songwriters’ Association Song Contest (Belfast Novels), and finalist status in the lyric category of the 2002 USA Songwriting Contest (I Should Have Stayed). Since then, his musical comedy, Saturday Night on Bourbon Street, has received public readings at the St. Lawrence Theatre in Toronto, showcased by Heretic Productions, and the Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts in Parry Sound, directed by Amanda Gibley of Limelight Theatre, as well as a director’s workshop conducted by the City of Brampton Theatres, coordinated by Scott Lale, the Artistic Director. In 2006, Alex’s songwriting activities culminated in a publishing deal for eight of his songs co-written by Willie McCulloch and managed by Scot Tex Music Publishing. During this period, Alex also added a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, with High Honours, to his Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Industrial Relations degrees. Over the past three years, he has taken over thirty MOOCs including How to Write Fiction and How to Write Poetry from the University of Iowa’s esteemed writing program. He lives with his vivacious wife near Parry Sound, Ontario and they have two wonderful children. The Comeback is Alex's second published novel. It was released by James Lorimer and Company Ltd. Publishers in its Sports Stories series on February 4th, 2020. Alex's first book, The Playmaker, came out a year earlier on February 5th, 2019.