The first book I ever wrote was Redwall fanfic titled STORM BADGER. It was twelve pages long with original hand-drawn illustrations. It turned out pretty well, so I figured I should end on a high note—I didn’t write another book for more than 20 years.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t writing.

As a teen, I set my stories to music, singing and playing guitar in bands across the Chicago area. I took an interest in recording and music production, embellishing my age by a few years to take over the lease on a recording studio in my home town when I was 15 so I could help other musicians tell their stories.

At 16, I joined the film and video program at my local college, where I wrote short films we rarely had the budget to shoot. One required a stuntman to break the windshield of my mom’s Toyota Corolla. He charged $250 and asked, “How much blood you want to see?”

One fateful November night years later, my wife Susan decided to set some plastic dinosaurs on the bathroom sink. Our daughter woke us up the next morning by jumping on our bed. She pulled us into the bathroom to show us the dinosaurs had come to life and started brushing their teeth. The dinosaurs wound up getting into trouble every night for the rest of the month, and again every November after that. Pretty soon, we were telling stories about them.

Now, I’m excited to share another brand-new series with you. Frances and the Monster and Frances and the Werewolves of the Black Forest are full-length novels about an aspiring young scientist who creates a monster only she can stop. I can’t wait to hear what you think.