Subjects of Interest:
Candle Face Chronicles
The Lost Souls
September 3, 2024
My last journal entry was on August 9, 2024, when I decided to stop the Candle Face Chronicles podcast. This decision wasn’t easy, but I felt it was necessary. While I truly enjoyed my time with the Get Haunted Network, I began to realize that it wasn’t serious enough for such a grave topic. Candle Face Chronicles requires a focus beyond entertainment, and I need a platform that respects the seriousness of this mission—finding the lost souls’ remains and identifying their killers.
But what really shook me was a heartbreaking call from one of the lost soul’s family members. They begged me to stop discussing their loved one, as they couldn’t bear the pain of knowing that Candle Face was torturing them. The guilt was overwhelming, and I began to think that Candle Face is haunting me—driving me crazy—just as she does to her victims. Many of her victims commit suicide or at least go mad because she gets into their heads. Is this her way of getting into mine?
A few nights ago, after nearly a month of silence, a lost soul visited me and told me that I must continue my mission of helping the lost souls and not give up, as they’re relying on me. This pep talk helped me realize that I must press on. But how? How do I continue searching for their bodies and identifying their killers without publicly naming the lost souls and their killers?
To move forward without causing more pain to their living relatives and friends, I’ve thought of a new strategy:
I believe the key lies in partnering with supernatural readers, who bring curiosity, persistence, and a willingness to confront Candle Face. I’ve tried collaborating with paranormal investigators, psychics, and mediums in the past, but these efforts haven’t yielded the results I was hoping for. Many in the paranormal community prefer to focus on cases that are less complex or intense than Candle Face. They tend to work within their comfort zones, and while their contributions are valuable, Candle Face requires an investigation that goes beyond typical paranormal encounters.
On the other hand, supernatural readers engage with their books and continue reading even when frightened. They may pull the covers up closer or snuggle up to their partner, but they continue reading, unlike the paranormal community who tend to run at the first unknown knock or thump. These readers have a unique advantage—they’re used to solving puzzles and following complex threads in the paranormal world through stories. They persist, not out of obligation to podcast subscribers but out of curiosity and commitment to the story. By bringing them into the investigation, I can leverage their perceptions to help investigate the clues left by the lost souls. I’ll use a private Facebook group and a public Facebook page for these serious supernatural readers.
The private Facebook group will be for those who want to engage with more sensitive and confidential aspects of the investigation. Here, I can share specific details about the lost souls—working directly with families who have given consent—without publicly revealing their identities. Readers will have access to more detailed information, and their contributions will directly impact the progress of the investigation.
The public Facebook page will allow for more general collaboration. I’ll share clues, such as locations, objects, and cryptic messages, allowing readers to help solve cases without revealing specific names or details unless authorized by the lost souls’ relatives. This will protect the living relatives and friends from further grief while still involving the public in a meaningful way.
To balance the need for closure with protecting the families, I’ll employ several tactics:
Permission from Families: Before publicly naming any lost soul, I’ll seek permission from the family. If they’re uncomfortable with the public disclosure, I’ll keep the investigation focused on anonymous details and still work privately to bring resolution.
Pseudonyms for Public Cases: If permission isn’t granted, I’ll use pseudonyms or vague descriptions to refer to the lost souls (e.g., “A woman from Austin, Texas, who went missing in 2010”). This allows readers to stay engaged with the investigation while protecting the identity of the victims.
Private Updates for Families: While the public may not get all the details, families will be kept informed of progress and milestones privately. They’ll receive the closure they need without the emotional burden of a public case.
Separate Public and Private Information: Public posts will focus on general clues and updates. More specific, confidential information will be shared as needed for those engaging in the private group. This way, the investigation continues without crossing sensitive lines.
Milestone Updates for Readers: Readers won’t need to know the personal identities of the lost souls to contribute. However, they’ll receive updates on important milestones—such as locating remains or solving a critical piece of the puzzle—giving them a sense of accomplishment and closure, knowing they played a role in helping the lost souls find peace.
Work with Trusted Mediators: In some cases, I’ll rely on mediators between me and the families, ensuring that sensitive information is handled with care and that families are comfortable with what’s shared publicly.
Delayed Disclosure: For particularly sensitive cases, I may wait until a case is fully resolved before releasing any information to the public. This allows the family time to process the findings before anything is made public, helping to prevent emotional distress.
By balancing these approaches, I can ensure that the families are protected while continuing the investigation with the help of supernatural readers.
Besides collaborating with supernatural readers, I’ll seek the help of spiritual leaders from various faiths. By bringing in diverse perspectives from different religious traditions, I can better understand the spiritual dimensions of Candle Face and the lost souls. Spiritual leaders can offer insights into rituals, prayers, and spiritual protections that might help in the investigation. Their involvement will diversify the investigation and guide how to proceed with respect for all spiritual beliefs.
For example, a Catholic priest might offer blessings or exorcisms, a Rabbi could provide insights into protective rituals from Kabbalistic teachings, an Imam could suggest prayers or guidance from Islamic traditions, and a Buddhist monk might offer meditative practices to protect against evil spirits. By involving these leaders, the investigation will be enriched with a wide range of spiritual tools and practices that could help combat Candle Face and bring peace to the lost souls.
I’ll also consider seeking help from historians and folklorists who can provide context to Candle Face’s origins. Understanding the historical and cultural background of the areas where Candle Face operates might reveal important clues about her identity and methods. Additionally, working with experts in psychology, particularly those who specialize in trauma and the paranormal, could help decode the experiences of the lost souls and offer new ways to support them.
By involving these diverse collaborators—spiritual leaders, historians, folklorists, and psychologists—the investigation can benefit from a holistic approach that addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of Candle Face’s terror.
That said, I’ll still seek help from paranormal investigators, psychics, and mediums, especially from the Central Texas paranormal community, as Candle Face’s attacks seem to be concentrated there. Their input will remain valuable, but my primary focus will be on readers and collaborators who bring persistence, curiosity, and a fearless commitment to helping the lost souls and gaining an understanding of the origins of Candle Face. Together, we can bring the lost souls the closure they deserve while ensuring we respect and protect the living.
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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