Subject of Interest:
The Empty Lot Next Door
November 20, 2023
SPOILER ALERT: This journal entry contains insights about major characters and their roles in The Empty Lot Next Door. If you’re trying to avoid spoilers, it’s advisable not to read further until you’ve finished the book. Reading this entry may reveal important plot details you’d rather discover alone.
In 2010, The Empty Lot Next Door debuted to favorable reviews on Amazon and quickly received awards. Despite its success, not all elements of the book were embraced warmly. The main point of contention? A character named Griffin. Many readers critiqued Griffin’s stories for their overly lengthy and childish nature, noting that they constituted about 30 pages of the 300 total pages of The Empty Lot Next Door. Others didn’t grasp Griffin’s importance to the story, leading me to a challenging task in the second edition: to decrease his presence while simultaneously strengthening his meaning. I took this feedback to heart, yet I couldn’t overlook Griffin’s pivotal role in the story.
Griffin wasn’t just any character; he was a figment of my brother Ricky’s vivid imagination: a hybrid of a boy and a lion. Ricky’s stories about Griffin captivated the neighborhood children in our treehouse, nestled in the empty lot next door to our house. These stories, enchanting by day and spooky by night, became Ricky’s solace from the loneliness and upheavals of childhood and a shield against neighborhood bullies. According to ancient myths, Griffins are guardians, and to Ricky, Griffin fulfilled this role. This duality of Griffin’s existence, hovering between reality and fantasy, forms the book’s heart.
Returning to Texas after retiring from the military, I sat out to refine The Empty Lot Next Door. The intention was to craft a second edition that transitioned from the young adult genre to a story anchored in reality, aiming to reflect what truly happened more accurately and align with the true horror elements often missing in young adult books. Nevertheless, Griffin’s essence remained untouched, as integral as the presence of Ricky, myself, or Candle Face. Altering this would risk losing the soul of the story.
The revised edition introduces significant changes. While maintaining Griffin’s core significance, the fantastical elaborations of his adventures are scaled back. The Empty Lot Next Door, Second Edition veers away from youthful imagination, instead focusing on a more factual recounting that amplifies the evil lurking on Ben Howell Drive in Austin, TX. Promising a blend of grim realities over fanciful escapades, the second edition aims to unsettle with truths rather than fantasies.
Reflecting on the initial feedback, I realize it wasn’t just about Griffin’s character but about finding the right balance in storytelling. These reflections, both challenging and enlightening, have profoundly shaped the evolution of The Empty Lot Next Door. As I share this second edition, I hope readers will find a deeper connection to the story’s truths and appreciate Griffin’s role not as a mere flight of fancy but as a beacon of resilience and imagination that illuminates the darker corners of our reality.
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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