Subjects of Interest:
Candle Face Chronicles
The Lost Souls
November 30, 2023
As I settled into bed tonight, with twilight casting long shadows over my room, I wasn’t surprised to see another spirit appear in the corner, entering just as the others had before. This one walked toward me with a noticeable limp, but there was a clear sense of purpose behind each step. I felt an odd calm, probably because I’ve grown used to these nightly visits. As it got closer, I could almost feel the air humming with a story it was waiting to share. And then it spoke:
Every time I limped through the streets of downtown Austin, things got quiet. The suit-and-tie types and folks in fancy clothes would shut up as I got close, like someone hit the mute button. Then, as soon as I was past, they’d start talking again, like I wasn’t even there. My limp was like a steady drumbeat—a reminder that life’s hard knocks hadn’t knocked me down. I didn’t mind that no one looked me in the eye. It was better that way. Trusting people? That’s not for me.
In the homeless community, we talked a lot about Candle Face. She was this story we clung to, something to distract us from the demons in our own heads. Some people called her by a different name, calling her a savior for the lost, a beacon for the broken. I wanted to believe that too, but no matter how many times I called for her, she never answered. The silence started to eat away at my belief, and after a while, it just withered, like flowers left out in the sun too long.
When she finally did show up, it wasn’t to save me. It wasn’t gentle or comforting. It was a scream—a raw, piercing sound that shattered the monotony of my days and nights. She wasn’t there to guide me. She was there to command me, to tell me I had to serve her and spread her story. Her demands were just another voice in a mind that already had too many. I lashed out, angry and bitter. My faith in her? Gone, replaced by something sour and sharp.
That was my mistake.
One evening, I was sitting on a bench, waiting for the bus, when the streetlights started to dim. Shadows stretched out in ways they shouldn’t. And then she came—Candle Face. Her hollow eyes and that gaping, empty mouth… I’ll never forget it.
“You do not believe,” she hissed. “Your faith is the light that feeds me, and your doubt... your punishment.”
Before I could say anything, her hands—hot, sizzling—grabbed my shoulders, and everything went blank. The city’s sounds faded to nothing, and I was dragged into the shadow of that bus stop.
In her lair, she showed me the truth. Candle Face wasn’t the savior I’d imagined. She was the guardian of a place caught between life and death, where spirits linger, trapped by their own skepticism. It was her hell, and now it was mine too.
She wasn’t collecting believers; she was collecting the lost. She fed on disbelief, turning it into her power.
My punishment wasn’t just in the haunting—it was becoming part of it. I was one of her stories now, a cautionary story for anyone who let their faith slip away. It’s not a fate I would’ve chosen, but I guess I earned it with my anger and doubt.
He nodded in gratitude, then slowly turned and limped back toward the corner he’d appeared from, fading into nothing. Eager not to lose any details, I rushed downstairs to write out his story immediately.
Personal Note to My Readers
It seems likely this victim was a homeless man who spent a lot of time downtown, but not necessarily living there, considering he was waiting for a bus late at night. One strong clue is his noticeable limp.
Is Candle Face real?
This is a complex and deeply personal question. On the one hand, there's the possibility that Candle Face is a manifestation of my childhood trauma, a figure created by my mind to cope with fear and emotional turmoil. On the other hand, the consistent details, physical evidence, and shared experiences with others suggest that Candle Face may be a genuine supernatural entity. Whether Candle Face is real or a creation of my psyche, her impact on my life has been undeniably profound. Ultimately, the answer to this question is up to you.
How are you able to communicate with the dead? Are you a psychic or medium?
I don’t consider myself a psychic or medium, although many in the paranormal community believe I have some kind of gift, perhaps one that I haven’t fully tapped into yet. Unlike those who claim to communicate with any spirit, my ability seems limited to connecting with Candle Face’s victims and Candle Face herself. While I’m not sure how this works, the connection is strong and focused on these particular Lost Souls, allowing me to share their stories and seek justice for them.
Do you use AI to create your content?
From October 2023 to around March 2024, I personally wrote the short descriptions you see on Google and social media platforms when my web pages or journal entries are shared or found in search results. These descriptions are those brief, 160-character summaries that pop up beside the URL. It was challenging to condense complex ideas into such a small space.
By March 2024, I began letting Wix, my website host, handle this task for me. Their AI generates these summaries much faster and often with more precision than I could manage within that tight character limit. It was a practical decision to let the system take over this small aspect of my work, allowing me to focus more on my writing and investigations.
The web pages and journal entries themselves are entirely my own. My writing encompasses a wide range of topics, including the testimonies of the Lost Souls, my investigations into Candle Face/Isabel, my books like Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook, as well as other works and research. Everything I write is rooted in my decades of experience in writing (over ten books in 15 years) and my 30+ years of expertise in intelligence analysis, missing persons cases, and human trafficking investigations. The core content you read always comes from me.
By early March 2025, I decided to create a Shopify account to sell copies of Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona, The Haunted Handbook, and to look for caretakers for The Scrolls of Souls. It was a tremendous amount of work to manually transfer all 130 journal entries from Wix to Shopify and recreate the Google SEO titles and descriptions for each entry. Shopify’s blogging platform also required a summary for each journal entry. Summarizing my work was taking around 30 minutes per entry, which became overwhelming and unsustainable.
To streamline the process, I allowed AI to create the summaries for me by uploading each journal entry and letting the AI generate the SEO descriptions, summaries, and ALT text for images. Here's a clear breakdown of what is AI-generated:
- Some journal entry titles.
- Nearly all SEO journal descriptions (up to 160 characters).
- Nearly all summaries (which are only available in the backend and not visible to the public).
Everything else you read comes from me, whether it’s documenting testimonies from the Lost Souls, researching Candle Face/Isabel, or writing my books. The AI simply handles the tedious, mechanical parts of the process, leaving the writing, storytelling, and investigations entirely in my hands.
I review all AI-generated summaries and descriptions to ensure they accurately represent the essence of my writing. My decision to use AI for these backend tasks is about maintaining efficiency and allowing me to focus on what truly matters: writing, storytelling, investigations, and giving voice to the Lost Souls, protecting the Fugitives, investigating Candle Face/Isabel, and exploring new projects. Your experience as a reader is shaped by my work, not by AI.
Why did you end the podcast?
I decided to cancel the Candle Face Chronicles Podcast for two key reasons. First, while the Get Haunted Network is a fantastic community for paranormal entertainment, it wasn't the right fit for the serious and important nature of my work with Candle Face Chronicles. The network's lighthearted tone didn’t align with my mission.
Second, the friends and family of one of Candle Face's victims reached out and asked me to stop discussing their loved one on the podcast because it was causing them too much pain. Their request made me realize that my work, while well-intentioned, was unintentionally hurting those who are still living and grieving.
These reasons led me to end the podcast, but I remain committed to continuing my mission to uncover Candle Face’s origins and methods with a renewed focus on compassion and respect for the living.
Why did you stop using www.candleface.com and start using www.branchingplotbooks.com?
I have had the branchingplotbooks.com domain since 2012, but I transferred the domain to Shopify to use it as my storefront. I needed to do this because Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona can't be published or sold via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing because of its spiral binding requirement. The same goes for The Haunted Handbook.
I decided to sell them, along with most of my other books, on Shopify because it allows me to provide a more streamlined and reliable experience for my readers. It also enables me to have full control over my work and how it reaches my audience. Additionally, all my books are still available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), except for Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook due to their unique binding requirements.
I also chose to use Shopify’s blogging platform, keeping all books, my journal, and the shopping experience located in one place.
I plan on keeping www.candleface.com up for the interim, but it will likely go down as well, or at least be redirected to www.branchingplotbooks.com. In the end, I want my work to be more streamlined and easier for the paranormal community and my readers to find my work, read and help the lost souls, protect the fugitives, and care for the Scrolls of Souls.
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