Recently I finished my first novel, The Bella Vista Motel.  It's a noir crime story, set in a haunted West Texas motel in the 1940s.  It is number one in a planned series of three.  This site is a companion for the series, a blog about my writing process and I guess, unavoidably, me.

Elsewhere on this site, you'll find excerpts from the first Bella Vista book – the prologue and some sample chapters – as well as a tour of the motel grounds.  I’m also posting original short stories set in the Bella Vista world.  Click on New Work to take a look.

The blog is an experiment in direct dialog with you, dear reader.  I say experiment because at this point, your existence is theoretical to me.  Your interest in my writing is hoped for, but not assumed.  And so, until you prove otherwise, you are another one of my ghosts.

That's okay with me.  I've learned that ghosts can be some of the most interesting people and can become very real and very interactive if they take a fancy to you.  I like most of my ghosts, some of them I love.  I write ghost stories, I think, because my life has been a ghost story in so many ways. 

Can’t explain where all the horror comes from.  Maybe we’ll both figure that out along the way...