The Inspiration Behind The Lizardville Ghost Story Trilogy.

I’m often asked what inspired The Lizardville Ghost Story Trilogy. The answer is simple: I lived it—well, sort of.

In 1969, my parents bought the old damkeeper’s house in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania. It sat on Lizardville Road, a historic four-story home built in the early 1900s, complete with a full basement, two main floors, and a sprawling attic. Nestled in a valley and surrounded by mountains, our home overlooked the ruins of a dam and the remnants of the old Axe Factory along Fishing Creek.

As kids in a town of just a thousand people, we often thought life was boring. But looking back now, I realize how lucky I was to grow up in such a close-knit community. My older brother and a handful of “neighbors” (though most lived a quarter mile or more away) were my constant companions. We rode bikes, fished, camped, and hiked the woods together, using our imaginations to turn everyday life into adventure.

Growing up in the 1970s was a vastly different experience from what kids face today, and many of my childhood memories have become the foundation for the stories I now write. Just half a mile from our house sat a motorcycle shop. Back then, bikes were shipped in wooden crates packed with big slabs of Styrofoam. The shop would toss the foam out back, and we kids saw an opportunity. We dragged those pieces down to Fishing Creek, where they became makeshift rafts for floating the river. Summers were filled with swimming, fishing, and exploring—ordinary days transformed into unforgettable adventures.

Wildlife thrived all around us—the woods, the creek, even the dried-up lake bed where the dam had once held back the water. From snakes, muskrats, and beavers to deer and even the occasional black bear, the land was alive. People often ask if the bridge scene in The Camping Trip really happened. The answer is yes—it did. In fact, many of the events in that book are drawn directly from real adventures, with one exception: I never actually spoke to ghosts.

The remains of the old Axe Factory were another favorite spot to explore. While we never encountered ghosts as kids, there were plenty of unexplained occurrences that left us wondering. Parents and older kids often dismissed them as animals or something ordinary, but in our imaginations, the possibilities were endless.

As we grew into our teenage years, our adventures evolved from simple overnight trips to full weekend excursions. Learning to live off the land became part of life. We spent more time outside than inside, and when I look back now, I sometimes wonder, What were my parents thinking? But times were different back then.

Those years—those moments of wonder, fear, and adventure—became the seeds of The Lizardville Ghost Story Trilogy. While the ghosts may be fictional, the heart of the story is very real.