Seeing Ghosts

I was born in Hanford, California in 1969. In the mid 1970's, my father began a Law Enforcement career just up the road with the Kingsburg Police Department, taking our family there. It was in junior high school when things began to take shape. I discovered horror novels - books by Stephen King, Clive Barker and Michael Slade, to name a few - , as well as hard rock music. These influences began to form a spark of creativity within me. I began to play guitar and pen song lyrics, but soon found myself confined in that tight medium, desiring to do longer works.

After high school, I moved on to the local community college where I met my wife. By this time, I had written a handful of short stories, a couple of novellas and had begun writing the novel that would become, "Dance on Fire".

Career changes, building a family, and the busyness of life impeded my writing at this point. It wasn't until I came to the realization near my fortieth birthday, that I didn't want to go to the grave with any regrets, that I plunged headlong into the dust-covered novel in earnest and not only completed it after twenty years, but started and completed its sequel soon after.

My family still makes its home Kingsburg, which is the setting for my vampire series, and perhaps a few other things as well. For my day job, I am an Administrative Supervisor for Sun-Maid Growers of California.

James Garcia Jr. began writing when he discovered horror novels while in junior high. Later, he set aside his dream of being a writer while he and his wife started their family. Later still, while approaching his fortieth year, he began to feel the haunting desire to see that novel completed. After twenty years, "Dance on Fire" was published in 2010. James is an Administrative Supervisor for Sun-Maid Growers of California.