Words have always fascinated me.

      Perhaps my fascination with words is connected to my mother. She served as an elementary school librarian. Because of this, the library became a second home to me.

      Perhaps the fact that my parents -- both avid readers -- introduced me at an early age to an enormous bookstore in downtown St. Petersburg contributed to my growing attraction to story-telling. Here, amidst mountains of books, I developed a love of the horror genre -- in comic books and in literature. Here, I found things like The Witching Hour, The House of Mystery, and Mystery Comics Digest.

      Here, I found Poe.

      By the time I first set foot on the campus of Seminole High School, two things had happened: 1) I had recognized my desire to become a writer, and, 2) I had become increasingly introverted. In a new and unfamiliar environment, I had difficulty finding new friends -- until I started writing Pigmund.

      Pigmund was a crude cartoon I produced throughout my high school years. At first, the stories were parodies of movies, peopled with caricatures of my peers (as well as the school's faculty members). As time went by, my cartooning skills improved slightly, but my writing skills really excelled. Original story lines became increasingly complex, while the parodies began to focus on literary works instead of popular movies. Hopefully Shakespeare can forgive me for creating Spamlet and The Merchant Is a Menace.

      I put Pigmund to rest shortly after high school, dismissing it as a rather immature and amateurish enterprise. I realize now how important those years had been -- through the cartoon I gained experience in story telling.

      I began writing professionally in the 1990s, and I continue to write to this day. Although I do not limit myself to the horror genre, much of my work -- genre or otherwise -- contains dark elements. My work has been published extensively in the small press (for more information, see my Credits page).

      I should mention my fascination with words goes beyond writing. I am a confessed bibliomaniac with an ever-expanding library to prove it. Fortunately, my wonderful wife Tracey has accepted this obsession of mine and actually encourages me. She hopes that I will some day open a bookstore -- which sounds exciting, except . . . wouldn't I have to sell the books?