I wrote my books because of my life at the coast.
Did You See That? and its follow-up books were all about finding the places no one knew about. I knew there were people like me who wanted to get off the big road and find something a little different. I loved exploring the shores and boating in the sounds, or driving off the main roads to find the old houses and old history that not everyone else had seen. My books became an expression of my adventures.
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Of course, there is no way to escape the ghost tales and legends from the Outer Banks. Life and death are close friends on the shore. Ghosts haunt every old house, every dark corner, every shadowy forest down here. I read the old ghost books so much and told the stories late at night in the dark, on porches and beaches, by fires or under the pier. I had to share those stories, too, so I wrote Haunting The Outer Banks. That was a fun book to write. I look forward to having more stories like those to tell.
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I continue to write. I’ve written fiction, a scary novel in The Unmerciful Sea, built upon Ocracoke and its own brand of mystery and isolation. And I’ve grown over the years of writing. I started writing before I was a father. Now I write books for my daughter, starting with Bess Truly And Her Zap-Gun Rangers, a fun tribute to my love of classic science fiction.
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No matter what I write, I know it will have something of me in it. A little salt, a little sand in the shoes, and a beach breeze will always be in there somewhere.
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Joe
