It all started on a stormy night in late September of 1968... Maybe that's too far back. Let's try again.

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I've always wanted to be a writer, which is to say that I was a bothersome kid with an overactive imagination. Believe it or not, being a writer in rural Alabama in the late 1970's wasn't nearly as cool as it is now. I was a bit of a nerd, always reading, daydreaming, and scribbling stories. At the tender age of thirteen I wrote my first novel on an electric typewriter that my sister had used to practice for her typing class. It was terrible, I'm sure, but I was proud of it. I wrote a novel! Me, A skinny kid who never quite fit in anywhere. I had written a novel. The fanfare was underwhelming to say the least. It took me many years to fully realize what a monumental task that really was.

After high school I joined the U.S. Navy, then bounced around a bit, but I managed to hand write another novel in a collection of notebooks. Then I got a real job, got married, and wrote my third novel on a word processer. None of them ever saw the light of day, but they did teach me a lot about myself and the art of writing. After that, personal issues and time constraints  reared their ugly heads so I took what amounted to a nineteen year break from writing. I feel like I need to state for the record that the reason for this extended break was not a prison term. If that had been the case I'd probably had written ten novels.

The funny thing is that during my long, non-incarcerated hiatus, books were growing in my head. Characters were forming, plots were thickening, worlds were forming.  I call this my "Duck Phase". There I was gliding through life like a normal person, but beneath the surface things were working furiously.

Then, in early January 2018, I woke with an idea that I had to put down. I was on my second marriage, I'd lost a child, and my business was in ruin, but that old familiar itch was back. I sat down at our dining room table with a laptop and began. Two weeks later I finished the first draft of Soul's Harbor. To me it was the most beautiful work I had ever created. Perfect. A masterpiece. Of course, it wasn't. It was a first draft, but it turned into a really nice novel. I think that book broke the dam because since then I've written eleven novels, more than thirty short stories, and about a hundred poems. I'm nowhere near the pinnacle of success, but I'm a long way from where I was on that cold January day.

Now, when I go to book events, people often ask me how I write Southern Gothic so well. I begin by explaining what Southern Gothic is. It's a sub-genre of gothic fiction, It incorporates the south -as you might have guessed- isolation, poverty, mental illness, a supernatural element (whether real or perceived) usually a patriarchal antagonist, and the environment usually plays a larger role in the storyline that typical stories. So, I write Southern Gothic so well because I grew up southern gothic. It's right in my wheelhouse and I love writing it.

I don't have a master's degree in writing, hell, sometimes I'm as surprised as anyone that I can do this. I'm not fancy. You won't need a dictionary to read my work, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Like most writers, my work does come from deep within. It's full of human emotion, raw and unbridled ideas, and rich, full language. People have compared my work to that of Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan, which I blushingly accept as one of the biggest compliments I have ever received. For a boy from the backwoods of Alabama to be considered in the same universe as such talented men baffles me to this day. However, I did grow up watching Hitchcock movies and reading Poe and Stephen King, so the seeds must have been planted at an early age. 

So, since you're already here, check out some of my work and let me know what you think. I appreciate every reader as if they were the only one. Unless you give me a two star review, then you're dead to me. Just kidding. I value all feedback, even if someone misses my literary genius (insert nervous chuckle here). I'm not for everyone and neither is my work. I came to accept that long ago. But hopefully, we're kindred spirits and I'll become one of your favorite authors. If not, know that I did my best and maybe pass the book along to your cool friends.

Thanks,

John 

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