’Tis not, dear reader, because his journey truly began in elementary school.

As a young kid, Mr. Blend was a voracious reader. From regular fiction to choose-your-own-adventure books, he consumed stories with a hunger for adventure.

In fact, he always kept a watchful eye on the small reading nook in the corner of his fifth-grade classroom, making sure he finished the project at hand, posthaste, so he could snatch the best seat in the house whilst continuing The Hobbit, or There and Back Again; The Chronicles of Narnia; A Wrinkle in Time; or some other exciting journey.

And creative writing was part of it.

Mr. Blend attributes his love of writing to a number of creative writing workshops taught in his elementary school. Small periods of time in which he and his classmates would craft tales of their own.

But he found one particular story, called Gory Story (written by a friend and read in class), particularly interesting.

The playfully macabre elements were fun--what kid wouldn’t enjoy that in the early 80s?

But it was the excitement of a story created from imagination, listening to it unfold, curious about would happen next--that is what truly captivated him.

Those were, in many ways, the best times of his childhood. And eventually, they served as a guide for his career.

“WHAT’S WRONG WITH weird? Weird's like the nuts in my cookies. It's the nuts that make things interesting!”

Florence Zimmerman, from the movie The House with a Clock in Its Walls