Welcome to 'Under Cover'.

 Welcome to the new blog! I enjoy writing and have been fortunate to have created several works that have been published or that I have self-published. You might have come here through my website or possibly through a search of some sort. If you aren't aware of who I am let me give you a brief synopsis of my writing and personal background. Yeah, brief, just don’t start scrolling yet or you’ll get carpal tunnel. 

 Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it. – Michael Crichton

It started on a rainy fall Saturday afternoon in... oh, let's skip my first couple of decades of my existence. When I was in high school, I was a decent artist. I also loved to write short stories, many of which were based on books or movies I had seen. I loved to create things and became absorbed in the time slip when creativity took over my body and the world carried on without me as I drew or wrote. My biggest claim to fame were murals I created on the lunchroom tables as well as a series of dirty comics I drew and sometimes sold to friends in school.

I eventually dropped out of graphic art in college and never could nail down what I wanted to do as far as a career in my life. This caused me to become trapped in a life of fast food and eventually retail jobs that lasted the rest of my life. Well, I'm not dead yet I suppose.

Sometime in the early 1990s I had created an idea for a novel dealing with an underground group of ghost investigators who had the ability to interact with the other side in ways that normal people were not aware of. It was a cool idea and I remember showing some friends the opening chapter which received a lot of great reaction. Unfortunately, that idea stayed idle for many years as life took over any dreams that I had of ever becoming a published author.

Keep working. Don't wait for inspiration. Work inspires inspiration. Keep working. – Michael Crichton

I’ve always been a serial hobbyist and have dabbled in more things than I could list at this point. In the mid-1990s I got a severe interest in ghosts and paranormal phenomenon. This led to a lot of library research, writing papers on topics, as well as backing my way into operating a paranormal investigation group for the better part of 15 years. Running a group of any kind takes a lot of time and effort and I eventually got tired of the lack of focused direction of my team and decided it was no longer worth all the trouble and disbanded it in the summer of 2011.

Early in 2003 during a period where the three other group members suddenly left me on my own without a team, I decided to put together a training handbook to help create a new one. From these concepts and ideas, I created a large volume of information which I whittled down for a group handbook. From the larger volume of information, I began to format it for a book. Despite the growing attention on the subject and the multitude of books being published I found no one interested in putting my ideas into a book. I became frustrated, impatient, but determined at the same time. I figured a book would help give me a little bit of credibility in the field, but it really was my goal to put ideas into a book so that I could influence the field and its direction while hopefully lowering the learning curve I experienced when I started out.

I stumbled upon Lulu Press, an online self-publishing website, sometime in 2005 or 2006. I had no idea you could publish your own books and I was determined to figure it out. When I attempted to publish my 350+ page how-to book I realized it would cost over $40 to purchase at the time just for me to earn a penny. I spent a lot of time splicing the big book into smaller chunks and bounced many ideas around for nearly two years as I decided to write a series of non-fiction "Handbooks" geared toward various paranormal phenomenon.

My first book was published on April 22, 2008, and was the greatest thing I had ever accomplished in my life at that point. Seriously, despite being embarrassed to even mention the book today I was so proud of what I created, and I still remember that feeling when I first had it in my hands. Another chunk from my original book (and a chapter for training my group members in how I approached cases) became my second release in August of 2008 (I called this a companion book to my first effort). July of 2010 would bring my "Handbook II" to light which was an update to my earlier effort on the ghost field but focused on things that had progressed with my learning and the culture of the paranormal. 

I began putting together a handbook on cryptozoology, the search for missing or unknown animals such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, but after dismantling my group my frustrations led to me trying to figure out where I went wrong. This led me to dig into many months of non-stop research that culminated in what I called the “E4” Method of paranormal research. This was a new methodology from many different avenues of investigation avenues past and present. I appeared on a bunch of podcasts, at paranormal events, as well as libraries talking about the topic. I intended on writing a small book that I could hand out to colleagues, but as I added more information it grew to a book of 88 pages crammed with information. This was published on February 28, 2013.

By then I focused back on my cryptozoology primer which I released less than a year later. This book was formatted much cleaner than my previous efforts and was the first book I can look back on and say I took my time getting right. I ended up being recognized as publishing one of the top books on cryptozoology that year by Loren Coleman. Loren is a legend in the field, and it was a huge honor to be recognized for my work. Shortly after, he emailed me and asked if he could sell the book in his International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. The only caveat was that he wanted to add a foreword to the book. That was a no brainer, and I created a second edition shortly after.

In July of 2017 I finished my handbook series with one geared toward UFOs and related phenomena. This book was also well formatted and contained many photographs and references and was the most professional non-fiction effort I had created despite it not gaining much attention. There were many other ideas I had for non-fiction books including one detailing the paranormal news that I had covered on a weekly podcast from 2008 until 2022. Again, life got in the way, and I still had that burning desire to publish some fiction.

I went back to work on my original novel and rewrote it from files saved on an old word processor. After not being able to dedicate consistent time to it I abandoned it once again as the plot seemed to come unwound just less than halfway through it. Despite the frustration, I decided to begin putting together a book based on one of the characters that appeared in it that I thought would be easier to write. That book continued to evolve, but I just couldn’t consistently keep writing and it went dormant for years.

In October of 2022 I saw a Facebook post where a friend of mine had been published in an anthology of short horror stories. The publisher was looking for review copy readers and I jumped in to help. I usually read 20 or more books a year, but only a handful of those are fiction. This book really stirred my emotions that I had to get myself back to writing. The following month the owner of the network my podcast was hosted on moved on and shut down the network due to some personal issues. Part of me was in withdrawal since I had created a loyal following for a podcast, website, and many other aspects of a life in the paranormal and that show was the last string holding me in that arena. 

In January of 2023 I finally decided that instead of continuing the show I wanted to get back to writing and prove to myself (and a few naysayers that had been right for decades) that I could complete a novel. I rewrote most of the story that I started out with but kept at it consistently and beat my deadline of completion by a couple of months. I thought I was finished, and I began sending out query letters to literary agents. After over 40 emails and a couple of denials I began to get frustrated with that process. I reached out to a few smaller publishing companies and was also ignored or denied. I then realized that my effort was not worthy of publication and after weeks of not reading it I combed through it again and many things jumped out at me. I spent weeks editing from the bottom up (I explain that in another blog post) and took time off from it to write another effort so that I could get a refreshed look at it again.

I did have a short story published in October of 2023 in the second edition of the book I had reviewed the year prior. Having been published by someone else felt good and it was enough for me to feel satisfied with publishing my own book. I have a small “tour” of library and paranormal events lined up for 2024 and decided to get my first book self-published if I still was able to do it after over a six-year absence. The process was easier than it had been and once I made the effort to do it, I had a copy on the way to review within a few hours.

Through the years I have written book reviews that have appeared in magazines as well as articles for magazines and journals. Blogging has always been a fun way to document things although I have never been able to dedicate myself to one. I hope this effort is finally the one that I dedicate myself to as I really want to share what I’ve learned (and struggled with at times) about writing and publishing. There is so much BS and misinformation floating around since everyone has a personal view of how things operate as well as a distorted view of their own importance in the process. I look forward to generating educational and informative content as well as more behind the scenes looks at my efforts.