As a teenager, I was the kid everyone asked to tell ghost stories when the lights went out. I would start making things up on the spot just to unsettle my friends. Somewhere in all of that, I realized I did not just love scary stories. I loved creating them.

Life took the long way around before I admitted I wanted to write a book. I served in the military and eventually found my way into IT and then teaching, where I discovered I actually enjoy being in a classroom, talking to people who want to break into the field. These days, I teach technology at a college by day and write about ghosts, curses, and the people who have to survive them by night.

My dad never stopped nudging me to write, but it was my wife who finally gave me the confidence to sit down and actually do it. My stories are rooted in the things that genuinely scare me: ghosts, reflections that do not quite behave, grief that lingers longer than it should, and the way old legends cling to real places. I am less interested in splatter and more interested in the quiet, creeping moments when you are not entirely sure if what you saw was real.

My debut novel, The River’s Edge, grew out of a trip to Costa Rica. Its people, landscapes, and river valleys got under my skin. I wanted to honor the feel of real places and the power of folklore like La Llorona, not just use a legend as a gimmick. The book is full of hauntings, yes, but also of families trying to heal, friendships forged under pressure, and the hard work of living with loss.

When I am not teaching or writing, I am usually learning something new just for the pleasure of it: history rabbit holes, odd bits of science, or random documentaries. I love woodworking. I once built a bed frame I am still proud of, and I can lose hours watching wood-turning videos or old episodes of The New Yankee Workshop.

I live in Texas with my wife and a chihuahua who is absolutely convinced that my keyboard time is really her time. My wife moved her desk next to mine so we could work side by side: me wrestling with sentences, her keeping me grounded.

A few final confessions: anything happening to eyes in a horror story makes my skin crawl; Oreos are a genuine weakness; and my favorite comfort food is what I call poor man’s French toast, which is peanut butter on toast drowned in syrup.

I want my books to be haunting, engaging, visual, and realistic. The kind of stories that feel like they could happen to people you actually know. If you close one of my novels feeling spooked but also a little more hopeful, as though if my characters can endure what they have faced then maybe you can too, then I have done my job.

And yes. I do believe the spirits are always watching.