Welcome to Joshuatwhaley.com

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Hello everyone! 

My name is Joshua T. Whaley, and I am the author of Lost Cannibal Manifesto, amongst other titles. My journey has been a somewhat strange trip through this life. It all started with my parents, who loved horror movies and used to drag me to ones like Halloween 2 and Ghost Story when I was very young. I can even remember my parents watching the cable premiers of Friday the 13th, Part 3, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Just imagine the influence movies like that had on a seven-year-old mind.

A troublemaker by nature, I was raised on a steady diet of horror movies and Heavy Metal music. I can remember back when my friends and I would go to the local mom-and-pop video store and rent horror movies, typically anything by Lucio Fulci or Dario Argento, and stay up all night watching them. Or, I can remember back to all the times we skipped school and skated all day with Metallica, Slayer, and the great Iron Maiden playing in the background. Thank goodness the 80s were a different time than today. We were a sight to see with long hair, band t-shirts, skinny jeans, and combat boots. The funny thing is, I still dress the same… well, without the boots. 

Anyway, when I turned 18, it was the military or jail, so the expression goes. I chose the latter and joined the Navy, where I spent three years floating around the Caribbean and South America. As horrible as it is living and working on a Naval Ship, I like to remember memories like hiking the Panamanian rainforest, snorkeling in Saint Croix, or touring an archaeological site in Ecuador.

After that, I went to work picking up dead bodies for the Broward County Medical Examiner before transitioning to working in funeral homes. From there, I went to college and earned my degree in Criminal Justice, which I used working as a Police Officer for a year. But it wasn’t for me, and I decided to move across the country to the West Coast. 

I started writing 15-plus years ago when I published The Prophecy of Zechariah and The In’ferno Effect. Although, as with any first-time author, I was arrogant… and did not need a real editor, I had a thesaurus. Well, I can tell you, thinking I was wise only made me look like a fool. The writing was scary, the grammar was horrifying, but the stories were good.

So, I put the writing on the back burner and went back into public safety before transitioning to carpentry. Then, an idea I had back then came together, and I wrote Lost Cannibal Manifesto. This time, I learned from past mistakes and hopefully created a story that horror fans would love. I also took everything I learned in the process and re-edited my first two novels into something I can be proud of. 

Today, I have written even more novels and anthologies from my home in the Pacific Northwest.