Subjects of Interest:
Candle Face Chronicles
The Lost Souls
The Fugitives
Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona
February 8, 2025
I almost didn’t notice them.
The boxes from Mr. Smoe were filled with the usual things: old papers, sketches, faded maps, and other odds and ends. Amid these scattered things lay hundreds of small notes on scraps—some on gum wrappers, some on napkins, others on crumpled receipts. At first, I thought they were just random jottings. One line, then a blank space. Another, then more space. Disjointed. Meaningless. But the moment I started reading, I felt something else, a pull, as though a hidden structure waited to be opened.
I studied the scraps one by one, noting that Mr. Smoe had scrawled a basic code or numbering system on them. It wasn’t easy to follow, but patience revealed these pieces might be part of a massive puzzle. More than that, they seemed to change whenever I tried to pin them down. I’d rearrange a line, and the meaning of the entire page shifted. I’d flip another, and the text changed again. It reminded me of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, except I wasn’t choosing the path; the path was choosing me. Each line rearranged itself in ways that defied all sense, like stepping into a living manuscript where any small movement altered the story’s course.
No matter how many times I turned these lines, the storyline never repeated. I tried to go back to the start, but the beginning vanished, replaced by another version of the same scene. I tried to find a final page, but there was none. It was a clown car of words. Scraps of paper this small shouldn’t hold millions of outcomes. But they did.
These lines no longer felt like plain ink on paper. They felt alive. The more I read, the stronger my sense that this was more than a scattered diary or stray musings. It was something beyond a simple story or record. I wasn’t merely reading; I was stepping through hidden doors. It reminded me of how Harry Potter must have felt upon opening Tom Riddle’s diary, drawn into a world woven behind simple words on a page, unaware of how deep the enchantment ran.
And the strangest part? Once I pieced the scraps together, each page contained only eight short lines, yet they flooded my mind with entire landscapes and entire lives. It was as though these sentences formed portals to other worlds. I’m still reeling from that thought. If I keep turning these lines, how much more will I discover?
What have I Discovered?
After weeks of deciphering Mr. Smoe’s code and organizing every scrap, I discovered an amazing story that breaks down into eleven “books,” each holding eight pages, each page offering eight sentences. By my math, that should be sixty-four sentences per book, seven hundred four in total across all eleven. It's a rather short story. Yet I can’t finish it. The story keeps growing, almost magically.
In just a handful of lines from the first section, I read about a mother striving to bring new life into the world under a midnight moon, her breath caught between relief and dread. A father hovered nearby, his worry tinged with hope, while neighbors stood at the threshold, unsure whether to come inside. It was only a few lines, but the moment felt entirely real. Each attempt to reread those sentences reshuffled them into something new, as though the text refused to present the same version twice. It was a remarkable feat; so few words conjuring multiple worlds, never in the same arrangement twice.
I plan to look deeper into these scraps, tracing every possible path of this ever-shifting manuscript. For now, I can only say I’m both transfixed and uneasy. I don’t know how such limited words can branch into so many directions, or how these short lines can hold me so firmly. All I know is that this isn’t some trivial curiosity. These scraps and the code behind them are truly extraordinary. I may never view words on a page the same way again.
Oh, by the way, on the very first scrap I managed to decode, there was just one word: Isabel.
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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