BRANCHING PLOT BOOKS
Branching Plot Books is an innovative reading experience devoted to the power of reader interpretation and interactive storytelling.
About Branching Plot Books
Branching Plot Books, founded in 2012, is a collection of projects that challenge readers to participate, interpret, and reflect. While the stories and formats may seem unrelated at first glance, they're united by a single purpose: to make the audience think critically about what they see, what they believe, and how they engage with the material.
Each project, whether it's a book with multiple outcomes like The Crawl Space, a memoir like The Empty Lot Next Door, a political fable like Friend or Foe, or an expansive interactive novel like Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona, which offers hundreds of trillions of possible paths, invites readers to bring their own beliefs, experiences, and instincts. Interpretation isn't just allowed. It's expected.
That same interaction continues with The Scrolls of Souls and The Fugitives, where readers become part of the story by investigating, adopting, or freeing spirits. The experience expands even further in Misleading by Design, where real-world investigations challenge readers to question the stories we're sold in everyday life, from predatory author services to deceptive product packaging.
Branching Plot Books isn't just a series. It's a platform for storytelling, reader engagement, reader interpretation, and how easily stories can be shaped, sold, or manipulated.
Branching Plot Books: Where Readers Shape the Story
Branching Plot Books challenge traditional storytelling models by prioritizing reader interpretation and interactive storytelling. The series recognizes the subjective nature of reading, leveraging it to create a more personalized literary experience.
The Many Layers of Branching Plot Books
Ambiguity
Branching Plot Books doesn't immediately showcase its linking characteristics. This ambiguity can intrigue readers, prompting them to look deeper to uncover connections.
Reader Interpretation
The primary characteristic of the Branching Plot Books series is its focus on the reader's subjective experience. Our stories aren't rigid but rather fluid, changing based on readers’ personal backgrounds and emotional states.
Enhanced Interactivity
Some books in the series amplify the interactive aspect, offering readers tangible choices that affect story outcomes, like The Crawl Space. This design enhances re-readability, as readers can explore different paths and outcomes.
Relativity of Interpretation
The series emphasizes that there's no definitive way to understand its content. This democratization of storytelling can be liberating, as it shifts some authorial power to the reader.
About Arthur
For over two decades, Arthur served as an Intelligence Warrant Officer, specializing in piecing together what others missed: patterns, threats, enemy intent, and clandestine activity. After retiring from the military, he transitioned into private investigation, focusing on missing persons and human trafficking cases. His work, whether in classified environments or on the streets, has always been about finding what others overlook.
He’s also an award-winning author, known for blending personal experience, reader interaction, and investigative work into stories rooted in loss, memory, and what gets left behind. His writing spans non-fiction, experimental fiction, and accounts of paranormal activity.
One of his most personal stories began in childhood. As a boy, Arthur saw something he couldn’t explain. To make sense of it, he gave her a name: Candle Face. For years, he believed she might have been just a manifestation of childhood trauma. But after returning to Texas, he learned she was real—and others have had their own encounters.
That experience led to Candle Face Chronicles, but it’s only part of the larger body of work Arthur continues to build. Alongside his ongoing intelligence work, he investigates real paranormal cases, documents Candle Face’s past, and writes with the same discipline he brought to every mission. Whether the trail leads to a cold case or something harder to explain, he follows it—on paper, online, or in person.