Tell us, if you don’t mind, a little about yourself.

Way to make a guy feel like Admiral Stockdale. “Who am I? Why am I here?” (Is that still a valid cultural reference point?)
Basics: Born, raised, and apparently eternally twined to Columbus, Ohio, USA. Bachelor of Music Composition from THE Ohio State University. Married; four cats. Office drone by day. I used to play indie rock in dingy bars much more often than I do these days.

Could you give us some background on how you began writing, and in particular, what drew you to writing horror?

I’ve explored several avenues of creativity throughout my life but, for much of it, prose was only sporadically interspersed with music, comics, video, etc. Sometime in my thirties I decided I needed to do something that required less outlay of my own money and less reliance on other people. This coincided happily with my discovery of the work of Robert Aickman. Reading Aickman inspired me to explore writing (as opposed to writing a story when that was the form an idea required). It turned out there was a burgeoning revival and reexamination of his work happening at the time. Who knew?

As to what drew me to weird fiction in general… I like the idea of reality being unsettled. I don’t want to (or, hell, can’t) promote fantastic escapism; I want to instill belief (instinctive, at least) that there is something else just a wrong turn away. I think the best way to do that is to begin with our agreed-upon contemporary existence and then create a sense of unease in order to access the less discerning parts of the brain. Horror is the crooked key to that “place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit…”

Can you tell us a bit about your story that appears in Turn to Ash, Vol. 1?

I love ghost stories. There are so many possibilities with ghosts. “A Scent of Sage” explores an idea of what ghosts might be—and why it’s important to be respectful, regardless.

Do you have any recent and/or upcoming work that you’d like to share?

“The Hidden Back Room”, my second collection of short stories, was just published by Tartarus Press (and the first collection from them, “Black Horse and other Strange Stories” just sold out).

I don’t talk about work in progress. For me, that’s the best way to kill it.

Where, if anywhere, can we find you on the Internet?

You’d think I would be more savvy about self-promotion on the internet. Maybe someday. I’m on the Facebook.

Anything else you’d like to share about your work or anything else going on in this universe (or any other)?

I probably should have written longer responses to the other questions, huh?

You can order Turn to Ash, Vol. 1, which features Jason’s Story “A Scent of Sage” – HERE -It is also available from Amazon. Find the link to your country’s Amazon page -HERE-.