Today, I thought I would share the dedication from Dead Park Plaza here in an open forum. This book would not have happened without my dad, for many reasons. One, my dad loved horror. Not all horror, mind you, but a good chunk. He liked a good scare, but he also liked horror-comedy. He’s the one who introduced me to William Castle, Ed Wood, Army of Darkness, and many of my favorites.

As you’ll read below, my dad had a direct influence on one of the stories in Dead Park Plaza. Without that text, there would be no Dead Park Plaza, no Dead Park series… no Dead Park Books. The whole identity of my fiction publishing would not exist without that germ of an idea he sent me.

The book literally came together in a month. As I write below, a scattered group of half-cooked stories all came together in the most remarkable way. I’m about to publish book four in the series, and books five and six are already started.

I’m still pretty much in the denial stage, by the way. Wondering if I’ll ever move on from that, but grateful that he gave me the gift of a story, a book, and much more.

From Dead Park Plaza:

One morning in early February of 2021, I heard my phone buzz. It was my Dad, texting me. He had dreamed something he thought would make a great horror story, a story that took place in an office setting, and he wanted to share it with me. It was a clever idea, and I think (I hope) I replied back and said so. I wasn’t working on any fiction at that time, so I kind of put it out of my mind. 

It was one of the last texts my Dad ever sent me. Several days later my mother took him into the hospital. Nine days later, after transferring to rehab and then back to the hospital, he was diagnosed with cancer on his birthday. A week after that diagnosis, he was gone. 

It was four months later that I connected the dots, realizing I had not one but five stories already in various stages of completion that all had the same common thread: horror in an office setting. I started work compiling and completing these tales, and by the time I was done, there were seven. 

As of this writing, I am still in denial. I want nothing more than to share this book with him and let him see not only the story he inspired but the whole compilation. He loved to laugh, and he loved a creepy tale. I know he’d get a kick out of it. 

July 23, 2021