About Me

I’m Chris Allen, an author, lifelong reader, and someone who has probably spent far too much of his life imagining people and places that do not exist.

Stories have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a child, I was always reading, and it was not long before I began writing stories of my own. There was something magical about opening a book and stepping into another world, but there was something even more exciting about realizing I could create those worlds myself.

Some of the authors who have stayed with me most are J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and R.L. Stine. Their books are very different, but each showed me how powerful a story can be. A book can carry us somewhere impossible, introduce us to people who feel completely real, frighten us, comfort us, and remain in our thoughts long after we have finished the final page.

That is what I hope to accomplish with my own writing.

My stories often begin with a single image, an unusual situation, or a question I cannot stop thinking about. I like to outline before I begin because I need to know where the story might be going. The characters, however, rarely cooperate with the plan. Once I start writing, they make their own choices, reveal unexpected secrets, and occasionally lead the entire story somewhere I never intended it to go. That is often when the writing becomes the most interesting.

I do most of my writing late at night, when the world is quieter and there are fewer interruptions. I have always been a night owl, and there is something about those late hours that makes it easier to step away from the ordinary world and enter the one taking shape on the page.

Away from writing, I value quiet time at home with my family. I am also the owner of entirely too many books, although I continue to believe there is room for at least one more. Probably several more.

Even when I am not sitting at a keyboard, I am usually thinking about a story. A passing conversation, an old building, a stranger in a restaurant, or an unanswered question can become the beginning of something new. I am always watching, wondering, and imagining what might happen next.

Writing allows me to share those imagined worlds with other people. Knowing that someone has chosen to spend a few hours inside a story I created is something I never take for granted.

I hope you find something here that draws you in, keeps you turning the pages, and stays with you after the story is over.