I grew up writing fantasy stories in elementary school, the subjects of which are way too embarassing to bring up here, and by the time I was 12, I began working on fan fiction.  My earliest influences were Jurassic Park (doesn't every kid love dinosaurs), Predator, and then the Resident Evil video games.  One of my fondest memories is of my 7th grade teacher Mrs. Lutter, who read a book I was writing to the class when we had extra time at the end of the day.  I suppose that was the first time I realized I could really entertain people with my stories and words.      I went on to write three books based loosely on Resident Evil called the Contagion series.  The first book, "A New Horror" was probably the best I wrote prior to 2001.  After being exposed to some authors I enjoyed, such as S.D. Perry, Nathan Archer, and Frank Peretti, I wrote Jersey Devil which would later be rewritten as Six Faces, my first published novel.  I went on to write a sequel several years later, and several short stories and full-length features.  Since then, I've constantly gone back to "The Oath" by Peretti, and recently read "House" by Peretti and Ted Dekker, because reading solid books always influences me in some way.      The main reason I write is to entertain people, and give them quality stories which always have a good message behind them.