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All About JohnFAQAwardsEducationAll About JohnMy Favorite WritersAwardsEducationAll About JohnAll About John . . . or What Scooby-Doo Taught Me about my Ghosts

My novels and much of my short fiction are about chasing ghosts and peeling off masks. I have Hanna-Barbera to thank for that.

As a kid, I would dash home from school, grab a packet of Pop-Tarts and a bottle of Mountain Dew, and scurry to the living room as that all-too-familiar jingle heralded my favorite show on TV--Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? I loved this show with such furor, such unadulterated pleasure. I loved it because Scooby and Shaggy were believers. They believed in the Creeper and the Snow Ghost, the Miner 49er and the Witchdoctor even though time and time again, the mask would be ripped off, and the gloriously paranormal would be reduced to some schmuck in a suit. You see, I wanted to believe in ghosts, too.

My father, for the eight short years that I knew him, loomed large--the model by which I was expected to mold myself. When he died, I was left with a phantom, an outline of a man. Out of that void burgeoned my desire to write. My early compulsion to tell stories sprung from a need to fill in his outline. If I figured out who he was, I thought, I would figure out who I was. However, unlike the Scooby-Doo villains, he stubbornly refused to relinquish his mask, and I was at a loss.

Throughout boarding school, college, and graduate school, I continued chasing his ghost, but the more I scrambled after him, the more I realized it wasn't my father I was hoping to booby-trap and unveil, but myself. During this time I married, began teaching high school English, bought a house, adopted two dogs, and established a conventional existence. Then, much like hapless Scooby and Shaggy, I ensnared my own ghost and ripped the mask off--I came out of the closet, was divorced, and started living and writing truer to myself.

Now, I pursue my phantoms as psychological metaphors, removing layers of deception and misdirection to unveil the truth about my characters, instead of ripping off goofy latex masks.

FAQMy Favorite WritersVirginia WoolfW. Somerset MaughamMargaret AtwoodIris MurdochRaymond ChandlerPatricia HighsmithYiyun LiA. S. ByattFlannery O'ConnorIan McEwanAgatha ChristieWilliam ShakespeareKazuo IshaguroWilliam WordsworthJohn FowlesAwardsAwards and PublicationsF. Scott Fitzgerald Short Story Contest 2004. First Runner-up Roanoke Review, Short Fiction, Spring 2004 Timber Creek Review, Short Fiction Summer, 2004 A story of mine was selected by my professors as George Mason University's official submission to Best New American Voices, 2003. Shelley A. Marshall Fiction Prize, 2003 Awarded for excellence in fiction at George Mason University.Davidson Honor Scholarship, 1993-7. Awarded for scholastic promise, leadership ability, character, and promise of contribution to society. R. Winley Hall Award for Creative Writing, 1994. First place for best prose or poetry submitted from the Davidson freshman class. The Patricia D. Cornwell Prize for Excellence in Writing, 1993. One of 9 finalists picked from a pool of 200.EducationEducationGeorge Mason University, Fairfax VA, 22030. MFA in Fiction. Graduated August 2005 with a GPA of 3.95. 49 credit hours. Completed my thesis, a novel about a visionary artist in 1920s. Other courses include Theory and Practice of Editing, Nonfiction and Fiction Workshops, Forms of Fiction, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Modern Short Story, American Modernism, and an Independent Study reading for Rattapallax, a literary journal. Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury VT, 05753. Masters in English Literature (a five year summer program). Graduated August 2004 with a GPA of 3.97. 30 credit hours. Courses include Photography and Literature, Fiction Writing, Contemporary American Short Fiction, Fictions of Finance, Fiction of Empire and the Breakup of Empire, The Pastoral Tradition, and Religion, Politics, and Literature from Spenser to Milton. Key West Literary Seminar, I attended both the seminar and a workshop in January 2002. Davidson College, Davidson NC, 28035. Bachelor of Arts in English. Graduated May 1997. GPA 3.493, Major GPA 3.725. 99 credit hours. Courses include Intro. to Creative Writing, Advanced Creative Writing, Playwriting, Writing Poetry, Writing Nonfiction Prose, Shakespeare, British Literature to 1900, 20th Century American Literature, Literature and Religion, Modern American Drama, and Acting and Directing. English Honors Thesis Project, 1996-1997. A creative project exploring the grief and search for selfhood experienced by an adolescent boy. The project culminated in a novella and a detailed, comprehensive presentation. Woodberry Forest High School, Orange, VA, 22989. Four-year boarding school. Graduated 1993.All About JohnFAQAwardsEducationJohn in DCBusch Gardens, Tampa, FLBusch Gardens, Tampa, FLRingling Museum, Sarasota, FLNaples, FlMeeps John at Top of the Rock, NYCTop of the Rock, NYCBefore the Home States Inauguration BallJohn at the Cove Inn DinerHarpers Ferry, WVAAt the "Bean" in Chicago, ILAt the CorcoranKentuck Knob, PAKentuck Knob, PAWarhol MuseumUniversal StudiosMuir WoodsIn GeorgetownAt the Hirshhorn MuseumHomeBooksBlogFor-AgentsContact