I'm afraid so. I don't remember the title - third grade was a long time ago for me. Our teacher gave us an assignment to write creative short stories. I wrote an action adventure about a guy who is chased up and down the Eiffel Tower. He escapes by hiding in a dumpster. Unfortunately, in addition to not remembering the title, I also don't remember why the protagonist was being chased. I think I got a "B" or "B-"on my story.

My family's from Transylvania.

Yes. For those who don't know, there is a real Transylvania. It's a region in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. Ethnic Germans migrated there in the 12th Century to defend Hungary's southern border. And yes, there was a real Dracula. He did things that Bram Stoker couldn't come up with in his wildest nightmares.

I guess horror and the paranormal are part of my DNA.

Acting and writing are just two different forms of story telling. I lost my fascination with the bright lights somewhere along the way, but not with the creating of characters. I find writing more satisfying than I ever did performing, which surprises me. I really loved acting at one time.

I grew up in Cleveland. It can be a tough place to live. There's a homeless shelter called St. Herman's House of Hospitality on the West Side, near where my family went to church. Running a homeless shelter takes money.

I want to help, but don't have much money of my own. What I do have, though, are some stories I can sell for a dollar apiece. Christmas struck me as the right time to do this. Sure, December is the time most charities - a lot of them - hold out their hands. But it's also a story telling time, and a ghostly time. Money comes and goes, but a good ghost story lingers.

I've come up with a different story each Christmas since starting this project. My first Christmas short story, Room At The Inn, is not in the paranormal genre. Paper Angel, 2012's story, 2013's Angels Treasure are more in my zone. I missed my own deadline last year, but Herald Angel completes the Angel Trilogy in 2015.

Every penny from those stories goes to St. Herman's. I've got at least one more Christmas short story in the pipeline.