Subject of Interest:
The Haunted Handbook
Everyone remembers their first paranormal investigation. The nervous excitement, the late-night stories, the hope that something paranormal will happen. For many new investigators, that excitement fades when they realize how easy it is to miss details or forget what really happened the next day. The Haunted Handbook was created to solve that problem.
Why Beginners Struggle Without Structure
New paranormal investigators usually bring plenty of energy but very little organization. Some jump in with expensive cameras, recorders, and ghost boxes, but without a plan, they end up with scattered clips, half-written notes, and no clear story of what actually took place. Clients, friends, or even other paranormal investigators are left guessing, which leads to incorrect analysis. The Haunted Handbook keeps those first cases from slipping into confusion.
A Step-by-Step Guide You Can Trust
The Haunted Handbook is built on more than three decades of real investigative experience. I spent 31 years working in intelligence, missing persons, and human trafficking cases. Those fields demanded accuracy, credibility, and professionalism. That same approach is what shaped The Haunted Handbook. Each form walks you through the process, from gathering client details to recording evidence. You don’t have to invent your own system or figure it out as you go. The handbook guides you so nothing important gets left behind.
Affordable Tools Compared to Expensive Gear
Paranormal investigators often spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on cameras, infrared equipment, audio recorders, and ghost boxes. Those tools are valuable, but they’re not enough on their own. Without structure, even the best evidence can be overlooked or dismissed. The Haunted Handbook gives investigators a professional framework at a fraction of the cost. The premium version is only $18.99 on my website, and the paperback version is priced at $14.99 on Amazon.
Best of all, you only need to purchase it once. You can make copies of the blank forms to use over and over again. And make copies of completed forms for your team, your clients, and for archival purposes. That means you can reuse the same system on every case without buying extra books.
Learning Professional Habits from the Start
Many investigators only discover years later that clients expect professionalism. New investigators who start with The Haunted Handbook avoid those growing pains. They learn to collect evidence, log environmental conditions, and prepare reports that build credibility. By practicing these habits early, you show clients and fellow investigators that you’re serious about the work, even if you're still learning.
Confidence for Your First Investigations
Ghost hunting is supposed to be exciting, not overwhelming. Having The Haunted Handbook in hand provides confidence. You know the right questions to ask, the right details to track, and the right way to store your findings for future use. For a first investigation, that confidence makes the experience more fun and much less stressful.
The Perfect Starting Point
The Haunted Handbook is more than just a handbook. It’s a companion that teaches new investigators how to balance fun with credibility. If you’re starting your first investigation, let the handbook guide you. You’ll not just chase ghosts. You’ll build the foundation of a reputation that lasts.
Is Candle Face real?
This is a complex and deeply personal question. On the one hand, there's the possibility that Candle Face is a manifestation of my childhood trauma, a figure created by my mind to cope with fear and emotional turmoil. On the other hand, the consistent details, physical evidence, and shared experiences with others suggest that Candle Face may be a genuine supernatural entity. Whether Candle Face is real or a creation of my psyche, her impact on my life has been undeniably profound. Ultimately, the answer to this question is up to you.
How are you able to communicate with the dead? Are you a psychic or medium?
I don’t consider myself a psychic or medium, although many in the paranormal community believe I have some kind of gift, perhaps one that I haven’t fully tapped into yet. Unlike those who claim to communicate with any spirit, my ability seems limited to connecting with Candle Face’s victims and Candle Face herself. While I’m not sure how this works, the connection is strong and focused on these particular lost souls, allowing me to share their stories and seek justice for them.
Why did you end the Candle Face Chronicles podcast?
I decided to cancel the Candle Face Chronicles podcast for two key reasons. First, while the Get Haunted Network is a fantastic community for paranormal entertainment, it wasn't the right fit for the serious and important nature of my work with Candle Face Chronicles. The network's lighthearted tone didn’t align with my mission.
Second, the friends and family of one of Candle Face's victims reached out and asked me to stop discussing their loved one on the podcast because it was causing them too much pain. Their request made me realize that my work, while well-intentioned, was unintentionally hurting those who are still living and grieving.
These reasons led me to end the podcast, but I remain committed to continuing my mission to uncover Candle Face’s origins and methods with a renewed focus on compassion and respect for the living.
Do you use AI to create your content?
From October 2023 to around March 2024, I personally wrote the short descriptions you see on Google and social media platforms when my web pages or journal entries are shared or found in search results. These descriptions are those brief, 160-character summaries that pop up beside the URL. It was challenging to condense complex ideas into such a small space.
By March 2024, I began letting Wix, my website host, handle this task for me. Their AI generates these summaries much faster and often with more precision than I could manage within that tight character limit. It was a practical decision to let the system take over this small aspect of my work, allowing me to focus more on my writing and investigations.
The web pages and journal entries themselves are entirely my own. My writing encompasses a wide range of topics, including the testimonies of the Lost Souls, my investigations into Candle Face/Isabel, my books like Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook, as well as other works and research. Everything I write is rooted in my decades of experience in writing (over ten books in 15 years) and my 30+ years of expertise in intelligence analysis, missing persons cases, and human trafficking investigations. The core content you read always comes from me.
By December 2024, I also began using AI to help create some of the images featured in my blogs. Due to the nature of my work, which covers real events, people, and spiritual encounters tied to Candle Face, the Fugitives, and the Scrolls of Souls, it became increasingly difficult to find stock or royalty-free images that accurately represented what needed to be shown. Rather than settle for generic visuals or spend time searching through endless photo libraries, I chose to use a modern-day tool that could generate images tailored to the story being told. I review each image to make sure it reflects the tone and details of the post. This approach allows me to focus on the core work of sharing what others will not and presenting it in a way that respects the subject matter.
By early March 2025, I decided to create a Shopify account to sell copies of Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona, The Haunted Handbook, and to look for caretakers for The Scrolls of Souls. It was a tremendous amount of work to manually transfer all 130 journal entries from Wix to Shopify and recreate the Google SEO titles and descriptions for each entry. Shopify’s blogging platform also required a summary for each journal entry. Summarizing my work was taking around 30 minutes per entry, which became overwhelming and unsustainable.
To streamline the process, I allowed AI to create the summaries for me by uploading each journal entry and letting the AI generate the SEO descriptions, summaries, and ALT text for images. Here's a clear breakdown of what is AI-generated:
- Some journal entry titles.
- Nearly all SEO journal descriptions (up to 160 characters).
- Nearly all summaries (which are only available in the backend and not visible to the public).
Everything else you read comes from me, whether it’s documenting testimonies from the Lost Souls, researching Candle Face/Isabel, or writing my books. The AI simply handles the tedious, mechanical parts of the process, leaving the writing, storytelling, and investigations entirely in my hands.
I review all AI-generated summaries and descriptions to ensure they accurately represent the essence of my writing. My decision to use AI for these backend tasks is about maintaining efficiency and allowing me to focus on what truly matters: writing, storytelling, investigations, and giving voice to the Lost Souls, protecting the Fugitives, investigating Candle Face/Isabel, and exploring new projects. Your experience as a reader is shaped by my work, not by AI.
Why did you stop using www.candleface.com and start using www.branchingplotbooks.com?
I have had the branchingplotbooks.com domain since 2012, but I transferred the domain to Shopify to use it as my storefront. I needed to do this because Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona can't be published or sold via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing because of its spiral binding requirement. The same goes for The Haunted Handbook.
I decided to sell them, along with most of my other books, on Shopify because it allows me to provide a more streamlined and reliable experience for my readers. It also enables me to have full control over my work and how it reaches my audience. Additionally, all my books are still available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), except for Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook due to their unique binding requirements.
I also chose to use Shopify’s blogging platform, keeping all books, my journal, and the shopping experience located in one place.
I plan on keeping www.candleface.com up for the interim, but it will likely go down as well, or at least be redirected to www.branchingplotbooks.com. In the end, I want my work to be more streamlined and easier for the paranormal community and my readers to find my work, read and help the lost souls, protect the Fugitives, and care for the Scrolls of Souls.
Your projects seem all over the place. Why not just stick to one subject or theme?
At first glance, my projects might seem scattered. I write about ghost stories, spiritual preservation, investigative reporting, and even political analysis. But they all serve one purpose. Each one invites readers to interpret what they see based on their own beliefs, experiences, and instincts. That's the heart of Branching Plot Books. Whether it's a scroll sealed with a forgotten soul, a book that can be read multiple ways, or a report that exposes something hidden in plain sight, the goal is the same. I want readers to take an active role, to question the surface, and decide what they believe is real. The stories may differ, but the purpose is always connected.
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