My name is Bryan Nowak, the author of the books No Name, The Dramatic Dead, and Riapoke.

I grew up in Steger, Illinois, a South Suburb of Chicago and spent lots of summers in Indiana. Many of my relatives still live in the Midwest and it’s a frequent destination for summer vacations.

I was born in the summer of 1973. I had the good fortune of attending Eastview Elementary School. There I learned the value of a good library through our local librarian. Exhausting the library of ghost stories, and tales of monsters, I re-read some of my favorites. One in particular I remember was the tale of the restless spirits of dead pirates. It was supposedly a true story. Years later, after the advent of the internet, I would find out that the story was well known, and the location of the story is presently a bed and breakfast in South Carolina. Reading those stories are what gave me a firm foundation of suspense and the paranormal.

Having moved to Minnesota as a teenager, I soon joined the US Army Reserves and the National Guard. I am a proud veteran of seventeen years. I went to college in Minnesota and met my wife there. Our first son was born in Minnesota. It’s safe to say that I will always have a soft spot in my life for the state that I once called home.

It was during my time in the U.S. Army that I was ordered to the state of Virginia, to fill in with an active duty unit who needed some extra help. Returning to that same unit over the next three summers, I learned to really love the state of Virginia. Many years later, my wife and I moved our family here and we still reside in Northern Virginia today.

I generally prefer horror to other genera, but I am not necessarily a purist. I like a good solid mystery to go along with it to keep you turning the pages or flicking the screen of your e-reader. I prefer a story line that doesn’t ooze blood, but I want it saturated in tension and dread. I’m a firm believer that if I can entertain you while scaring you a little, I have done my job.

-Your Humble Servant,

Bryan the Writer