Gary Robbins

As a photographer for the U.S. Army for three years, I learned to use the creative process required to take a vision or concept seen by the mind, capture that image, and then share it with the public. Powerful images spawn an emotional response by the viewer at which point the photographer has completed the task. I try to duplicate the same process with my writing; taking a concept or vision, describing it with the written word, and evoking an emotional response. The result is the pleasure and reward for making the effort.

Now let's get creative. Would you, given the opportunity, visit other worlds, or an alternate existence just for the hell of it? Or would you be a little more cautious, unable to take that step? The characters in my stories must make that decision. We all make decisions in life, some simple, some complex, some easy and some painstaking. But where does it say we will be horrified and frightened? Or that we will meet ghosts and manifestations. Or find ourselves in other worlds and dimensions that defy reality. Or what about dark places, really dark places? These things can happen.

I am a retired highway engineer that decided to become a writer. I was constructing a photo essay of my time in Izmir, Turkey as an Army photographer, when thunder struck and I decided to write fiction. I traveled to many places with the Army and found locations for great pictures and now serve as backdrops for stories. I was tasked with top secret filming inside military war headquarters deep in a mountain accessed only by helicopter. I walked in the footsteps of Cleopatra in the ancient City of Izmir. I photographed the Acropolis in Greece and saluted Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower. I prayed with the Turks at the "Blue Mosque" in Istanbul, learning their culture and marveling at their resourcefulness. I found a bounty of places where worlds could collide and open to other realms of mystery, revealing secrets and dark places that may harbor terror and evil.

There are places that challenge our senses and test our mettle, where our curiosity will not allow us to look away. We enter the forbidden, check our guns and walk through the doors facing our greatest fears and nightmares. Let's go back in time or travel to the future in search for another path, a unique portal to other worlds, where we face good and evil, whimsey and darkness, happiness and dread. What will the unknown present? Come along for the ride and discover for yourself, explore the shadows and feel the madness. Go ahead, do it. Open the books.