J.D. Toepfer, Author

J.D. Toepfer writes dark, paranormal thrillers where faith collides with horror and no soul is truly safe.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Every journey has a beginning.

Route 666 never intends to let you leave.
#HorrorFiction

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Every lonely highway has at least one place people stopped talking about.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

The best summer storms announce themselves long before the first drop of rain.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

You hear something moving in the trees.

You stop walking.

It stops too.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

The most unsettling lights are the ones you can't explain.

#WorldUFODay

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

The night sky becomes stranger the longer you look at it.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Some stories seem to prefer arriving after midnight.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Some landscapes already look like they know something.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Some lakes feel quiet.

Others feel like they’re listening.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

The unsettling part isn’t hearing something nearby.

It’s hearing it stop.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Some of the scariest horror memories started with wandering the video store aisle too young.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Some summer storms feel less like weather and more like warnings.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

It’s one thing to find something buried.

It’s another to realize someone wanted it hidden.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

For many people, Dracula was Bela Lugosi.

For me, it was Christopher Lee and the Hammer films.

Funny how the first version you meet becomes the one that stays with you.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

You uncover something buried.

Old. Intact. Deliberately placed there.

No markings. No explanation.

First move:
Open it / Research it / Rebury it / Walk away?

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

On this date in 1780, New England went dark in the middle of the day. Candles were lit at noon.

Later explanations came.

But I’ve always wondered what it felt like before anyone had one.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Many people met Dracula through Bela Lugosi.

I met him through Christopher Lee and the Hammer films.

The color somehow made them even scarier.

Funny how the first version you meet is often the one that stays with you.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Bull Run looks quiet now. Trees, water, old stone.

Hard to imagine this stream once gave its name to one of the Civil War’s most famous battles.

Some places feel different once you know their history.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Some places don’t change.

You just notice something different about them one day… and after that, they’re never quite the same.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Back in college, during finals, my brother and I would take a break and try to pull in a Connecticut station that played Hammer horror on the weekends.

Small black-and-white TV. Bad signal.

Didn’t matter.

Some things stick longer than the exams ever did.

[J.D. Toepfer, Author @jdtoepferauthor]

Blood remembers.

It always does.