Colton Aalto lives in a century-old brick warehouse in the "LoDo" section of downtown Denver with his husband and two cats, neither of whom understand how good they have it. Actually, the same can be said about Colton and his husband.

Colton grew up in Colorado, but after college, he sought the bright lights of the East Coast (plus there was a full ride scholarship for graduate school waiting). He spent a decade in New Jersey and Massachusetts learning to eat Italian food, ride trains, and endure humidity. Along the way, he spent enough time at Ivy League schools to collect a masters and a law degree and had a brief criminal justice career. Colton returned to Colorado when the lure of snow skiing and Colorado's sunny skies proved too great to resist. He practices law and writes legal treatises, except on powder days.

When and if he makes it to a particularly large state, Colton will have traveled to all fifty states. He and his husband have bicycled on six continents, pedaled up passes in the Alps, hiked into Machu Picchu, ridden elephants in Thailand and slept on the sands of the Sahara (okay, it was in a lavish tent). Colton does his best writing in his head while cycling or skiing, but seldom remembers the captivating images or witty dialogue long enough to get to a keyboard. And when the keyboard is in front of him, the words on the computer screen are never quite as entertaining as they were in his head.