Author Mike Ricksecker joins Sean and Lon to discuss his latest book "Ghostorian Case Files" and other haunted happenings. Mike Ricksecker is the author of the Chase Michael DeBarlo mystery novels Deadly Heirs and System of the Dead, and the paranormal books Ghosts of Maryland, Ghosts and Legends of Oklahoma, and CampfireTales: Midwest and
the hybrid paranormal research written work of his new “Ghostorian Case
Files” series. He has appeared on multiple television shows and
programs as a paranormal historian, including Animal Planet’s The Haunted and Bio Channel’s My Ghost Story, Fox 5 News (Washington DC) and Fox 25 News (Oklahoma City), and he produces his own Internet shows Ghosts and Legends and Paranormal Roads. Recently, he has formed his own publishing company, Haunted Road Media.
Mike’s historic paranormal articles have been published in The Baltimore Sun, Paranormal Underground Magazine, and he writes an Oklahoma City paranormal column for Examiner.com. His work has also been featured in The Oklahoman, The Frederick News Post, and Marshall University’s The Parthenon.
With over 20 years of experience, he’s also a paranormal investigator and “Ghostorian” with Society of the Haunted and regularly travels to speak about the paranormal and writing.
The son of a tool and die maker, Mike spent ten years growing up in
western Massachusetts and began writing detective fiction as far back as
the second grade. He carried his passion of writing with him back to
Ohio, the state of his birth, where he created a myriad of short
stories, novellas, and song lyrics. The character, Chase Michael
DeBarlo, was also seen in print for the first time during this period.
After a 6-year stint in the U.S. Air Force that bounced him between
Texas, Mississippi, Alaska, and Maryland, Mike resumed his detective
fiction by beginning to create an interactive computer game. During the
project, he realized his true passion and began the task of writing a
full-length novel. The game concept is still in development at this
time, and the precursors can be experienced through the mini-mystery
games available via the Mike Ricksecker Mystery newsletter.
While at Ft. George G. Meade, MD, Mike was the editor for The Monitor,
the 29th Intelligence Squadron newsletter. The editor position
basically meant doing 75% of the writing and 100% of the layout, but
enjoyable none-the-less. Also worth noting is the flyer titled “The
Issues” Mike created for the George W. Bush presidential campaign which
was used nation-wide in 2000. This flyer is still available for download.
In 2004, Deadly Heirs, the first installment of the Chase Michael DeBarlo mystery series was published, and the sequel, System of the Dead, was released in 2012. A third is in the works.
Although Mike and his family moved to Oklahoma in 2009, Ghosts of Maryland
was published by Schiffer Publishing in 2010. He subsequently inked a
deal to write a similar paranormal tome about ghosts and legends in
Oklahoma, which was released in 2011 as Ghosts and Legends of Oklahoma.
Mike resides again in Maryland, is an avid baseball fan, and has four children.