Kristopher Reisz grew up in Decatur, Alabama, which had three miniature golf courses and not much else. In tenth grade, he was assigned Return of the Native in English class. A quarter of the way through Thomas Hardy’s horrible, horrible masterpiece, he made his smartest decision to date: to never, ever open any book assigned in class again and spend his time reading whatever he wanted. Also while in high school, he decided his life’s ambition was to make as much money as possible without having to get up before noon. Thus, he set out to become a writer. He sold his first story to a small horror magazine for five dollars. The check bounced, and he was charged a twenty-dollar service fee. Some might have taken that as a sign, but he soldiered on. Since then, he’s worked as a paramedic and in a psychiatric hospital while learning to write. He still has not finished Return of the Native.