James A. Willis

Not since the Headless Horseman went charging through Sleepy Hollow has
something come out of the Hudson Highlands of upstate New York as thrilling
and chilling as author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis.

Fueled by a steady childhood diet of Boo Berry cereal, Creepy magazine, and
late-night Vincent Price movies, Willis soon developed a taste for the unexplained
and quickly began seeking out all things strange and spooky. When he wasn’t
trying to coax the boogeyman out from under his bed for a photo shoot, Willis
pondered such eternal questions as what happens to us when we die, is there
life on other planets, and what possesses someone to decorate their house with
1,001 milk jugs?

In 1999, after spending more than 15 years chasing after ghosts and visiting
crybaby bridges, Willis moved to Ohio and founded The Ghosts of Ohio
(ghostsofohio.org), a nationally recognized paranormal research organization.
Willis has grown the organization to well over 35 members in three divisions
throughout the state: Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.

In 2004, in what seemed to be destiny, Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, the
brainchilds of the Weird US series of books, approached Willis and asked him
to contribute to their latest volume, Weird US. To date, Willis has been involved
with 6 books in the Weird US series. He is the co-author of Weird Ohio (2005)
and Weird Indiana (2008) and was also a contributing author to Weird US
(2004), Weird Hauntings (2006), Weird US II: The ODDyssey Continues (2008),
and the forth-coming Weird Encounters (2010). Willis’ unique and offbeat
writing style was officially recognized in 2006 with his induction into the Grand
Order of Weird Writers. In addition, Willis has been a contributing author to
several books in the Armchair Reader series, beginning with Weird, Scary &
Unusual (2008) and continuing with several books to be released in 2010:
Armchair Reader Goes Hollywood, Armchair Reader’s All About Ohio,
and Armchair Reader Annual, Volume III.

A sought-after public speaker, Willis has given presentations throughout the
United States, during which he has educated and entertained tens of thousands
of people of all ages in crowd sizes ranging from 10 to well over 600. He has
also been featured in more than 50 media sources, including CNN, USA Today,
Columbus Business First, Midwest Living, The Canadian Press, and even the
Kuwait Times. He is also currently a contributing author to Mysteries Magazine.

Willis currently resides in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife, a Queen-loving parrot,
and three narcoleptic cats.