From an early age, I always loved to tell stories. When I look back into my youth, everything appears clearer. Anxieties—the joys, and even my daily boredom hid where my path was leading me. The hobbies, for most of us, remain only an exciting daydream. We all want to make the fantasies of our childhood a reality—a major league baseball player—an astronaut, a race car driver. These are the things we often leave behind when adulthood takes hold—when responsibilities squeeze out wishful thoughts.
Growing up, I was lucky enough to have parents who read bedtime stories to me nightly. It was in these memories I understood the power a story had to transport me to another world. Authors skillfully create destinations inside our heads, and it was that kind of power that called to me.
One of my earliest writing creations was a handful of blank papers folded in half and stapled to make a spine. In this crude first book, my Uncle Mark helped me design simple “Star Wars” panels of Tie Fighters and X-Wing Fighters flying through the galaxy—along with dialogue bubbles saying dramatic words like, “Laugh now…but cry later,” Darth Vader said. It was in these handmade comics that I learned what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Years later, riding the bus back and forth to school, I soon became the kid that told stories about the movie trailers I saw on television—I wasn’t old enough to see these adult movies myself. Not seeing the movie didn’t stop me—far from it! I would just make up my version of what I thought the film would be like. It got to where my friends on the bus asked me to describe the plot of the latest Friday the 13th flick or Dirty Harry or the latest Rodney Dangerfield movie—to pass the time on the bus.
In my teen years, my childhood friend Adam and I scoured the city for worn paperback novels. They were always in our hands, bought for a dollar at our local used bookstore, and treasured. I didn’t know it then, but I was studying my craft—forming my writing voice. Lost in the possibilities, the well-told stories captured me.
As soon as I graduated to adult fiction, my greatest hero was and always will be, Stephen King. The ideas that sprung from him were nothing less than magical. His strength to push the boundaries of what it meant to be a horror/suspense writer was an inspiration to every author I knew. I’m proud to say that after years of working at the craft, I will get my book “Bottom Feeders” published. I want to thank everyone who believed in me along the way, and I hope you enjoy my novel.