"If there's one thing I can say about the creative process behind The Crawlspace, it's this: it took guts to bring it to you. Real guts.

I first laid the groundwork for my book after moving to Phoenix for the second time in 2004. There were a few stories that had been written a few years prior and some I had started and never finished, and new ideas were starting to emerge. I had submitted a couple of them for publication (with not much response), but for the most part I was the only one who had laid eyes on these stories, and the odds of them ever being presented for public consumption were slim at best. Compared to everything I was reading, nothing I could compose would hold up to such a high standard, and I just didn't have the guts.

Four years later I finally found my guts, after receiving buckets of inspiration from family and friends (and I would be remiss not to include a perfectly timed online class called Fear Of Writing), and The Crawlspace was given its name. I wrote a few more stories, cleaned up some others, and after much tender-loving consideration decided on the best thirteen tales for this anthology, which I am making available to you now.

Anyone who has ever tried to be a writer knows that writing is hard, writing fiction is harder, and writing with the purpose of bringing nightmares to life...well, if you don't mind me saying, it's a bitch. Yet it's a journey we would take a million times because the emotional rewards are more precious than any material thing.

And so, I proudly bring you my book The Crawlspace, a product of my dreams, my heart, and my guts. Thank you for reading it."

Darryl D--