Case Files grew out of my early love for mysteries, Sherlock Holmes, and anything having to do with the supernatural or the occult. I combined my penchant for ghosts and detectives into one idea—a ghost detective who solves problems for dead people with issues. I began writing fiction in fifth grade, when my friend Debbie and I would sit on the concrete walkway outside our classroom and write out our version of a Nancy Drew mystery on a yellow legal pad. In college I was given one of those vocational interest tests as part of the process for placing me with an appropriate dorm mate. The results came out in this order: writer, journalist, and military commander. The counselor also asked what I was currently reading. When I answered Dante’s Inferno, she said she would have trouble placing me. I lived off campus. I’ve been writing on and off since then—book reviews for the student newspaper, two screenplays, several story outlines and numerous acerbic yet devastatingly witty letters to the editor. The Case Files of Thomas Carney is the first major writing project I’ve taken from inception to sales.