The Legend of Rachel Petersen follows a writer who moves to the country and writes a best-selling book about the imagined life of a twelve-year-old girl whose grave he finds on his property. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

While hunting one year, I actually did stumble upon a weathered tombstone in the middle of the woods. Waiting patiently for that big buck to cross my path, I had plenty of time to ponder the dead girl’s fate, which I was then driven to write.

Eerily enough, this is the premise of The Legend of Rachel Petersen, a writer finds a lone grave in the forest and writes the dead girl’s story, but he pays the consequences!

Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your novel?

Yes, several. I am as technologically handicapped as Christian Kane, the main protagonist. Also, I based his happy marriage and supportive wife off of my marriage. The two Yoder boys, who are avid deer hunters, were centered around my own experiences during my teenage years when I hunted.

What intrigues you about the horror and paranormal genres that led you to write this book?

Just the eeriness of the macabre; the uncertainties that ghosts and spirits exist. The overall mystique, the unknown.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?

I’m thirty chapters into a psychological thriller where a wealthy lawyer and a psychiatrist team up to rule the world. They both share a secret, but one has ulterior motives. Expect it in maybe in six to eight months, it needs four more chapters to finish it, but I write slowly. Plus it’s hard to write a book while promoting a finished one.

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