Charlie H. Johnson, Jr.
About.... Charlie H. Johnson, Jr.
I was born in Denver, Colorado in the mid-twentieth century. My family was very poor, and I was the first who had the opportunity to seek advanced education. However, long before that, I quit school after the 9thth grade and worked in the real world for over a year. It was a sobering experience, which led me to re-enroll in high school and work at my classes. I discovered that I could learn in school and be a good student. I ended up, by geographic accident, at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, Colorado. In its very early days then, Cherry Creek soon developed a reputation for academic excellence, from which I benefited. Due to the diligence and dedication of two of my teachers there, and because by that time I had become a straight “A” student, I applied for admission to a college and for a scholarship. I got both. After that, I learned that schools, education, and learning were my métier.
I attended Western State College of Colorado and the University of Denver for my undergraduate studies (B.A. in English and Speech), Western State College of Colorado for master's studies (M.A. in English and Speech), and went on to doctoral studies at the Universities of Colorado and Denver (Mass Communications). It was, again, my great fortune to have ended up at an institution (Western State College of Colorado) where there were outstanding professors in my fields of study—Theatre, Speech, and English. Additionally, I made friends there with a number of people in the Theater Department who were creative and stimulating, many of whom are still my close friends today! So, despite the fact that the school was/is relatively unknown and small, I got an excellent education for both my B.A. and M.A. degrees.
In the late 1960s, I taught 7th through 12th grade (English, Spanish, Drama, etc) at the Cripple Creek (Colorado) School District. In 1969 and the early 70s, I taught at Colorado Mountain College (English, Interpersonal Communications, Drama, Spanish). After a few years of teaching, which I loved, unfortunate personal circumstances led me to seek another career, and, so I began working as a freelance writer. For the next 25 years, I wrote professional and academic papers, articles, books, etc. I began writing local history books in the late 1970s in Denver, Colorado, and have continued doing so to recent years in California, when I wrote about a true murder mystery that took place at one of the historic missions in the mid-19th century and railroads. I’ve published two psychological mystery novels, Duplicity and Superstition, and a number of shorter works before and after that time, some of which are on this website.
From 1998 through mid-2008, I worked as a Financial Officer for a county food bank. From that position I was retired. I then pursued my teaching career again at two online universities, but also continued my profession as a freelance writer.
Today, I live in Las Vegas, with several cats. I love to read history, biography, classical literature and listen to BBC Radio 3 for classical music and opera. I am still writing and publishing under my own name and under different noms de plume.
(Photo by Andrew S. Gulliford)
Email me at chjpub@gmail.com
I was born in Denver, Colorado in the mid-twentieth century. My family was very poor, and I was the first who had the opportunity to seek advanced education. However, long before that, I quit school after the 9thth grade and worked in the real world for over a year. It was a sobering experience, which led me to re-enroll in high school and work at my classes. I discovered that I could learn in school and be a good student. I ended up, by geographic accident, at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, Colorado. In its very early days then, Cherry Creek soon developed a reputation for academic excellence, from which I benefited. Due to the diligence and dedication of two of my teachers there, and because by that time I had become a straight “A” student, I applied for admission to a college and for a scholarship. I got both. After that, I learned that schools, education, and learning were my métier.
I attended Western State College of Colorado and the University of Denver for my undergraduate studies (B.A. in English and Speech), Western State College of Colorado for master's studies (M.A. in English and Speech), and went on to doctoral studies at the Universities of Colorado and Denver (Mass Communications). It was, again, my great fortune to have ended up at an institution (Western State College of Colorado) where there were outstanding professors in my fields of study—Theatre, Speech, and English. Additionally, I made friends there with a number of people in the Theater Department who were creative and stimulating, many of whom are still my close friends today! So, despite the fact that the school was/is relatively unknown and small, I got an excellent education for both my B.A. and M.A. degrees.
In the late 1960s, I taught 7th through 12th grade (English, Spanish, Drama, etc) at the Cripple Creek (Colorado) School District. In 1969 and the early 70s, I taught at Colorado Mountain College (English, Interpersonal Communications, Drama, Spanish). After a few years of teaching, which I loved, unfortunate personal circumstances led me to seek another career, and, so I began working as a freelance writer. For the next 25 years, I wrote professional and academic papers, articles, books, etc. I began writing local history books in the late 1970s in Denver, Colorado, and have continued doing so to recent years in California, when I wrote about a true murder mystery that took place at one of the historic missions in the mid-19th century and railroads. I’ve published two psychological mystery novels, Duplicity and Superstition, and a number of shorter works before and after that time, some of which are on this website.
From 1998 through mid-2008, I worked as a Financial Officer for a county food bank. From that position I was retired. I then pursued my teaching career again at two online universities, but also continued my profession as a freelance writer.
Today, I live in Las Vegas, with several cats. I love to read history, biography, classical literature and listen to BBC Radio 3 for classical music and opera. I am still writing and publishing under my own name and under different noms de plume.
(Photo by Andrew S. Gulliford)
Email me at chjpub@gmail.com
Superstition
"When you choose to counter the natural order and awaken the dead and bring them back into our world, they have ways of making you pay
for it. The ways of the dead are mysterious, as
are the ways of the living, and their conjunction is a powerful event...."
Carlos, a psychic detective from New York City, is drawn into the case of a middle- aged Scottsdale woman seeking the identity of her missing father. In touch with the dead, Carlos soon learns that the case is far more complicated. His investigation leads him to Superstition Mountain in Arizona and into real and psychic dangers that a series of dreams warn him about. Staying in a beautiful home in Scottsdale that he calls the “Palace,” Carlos gets a taste of “the good life” unlike his flat in New York City. His hostess shows him a series of old photos that offer a path into events at Superstition in 1942 and trigger premonitions of violence threatening Carlos’ life. Several hiking trips into Superstition to “The Massacre Grounds” put Carlos in danger of rattlesnakes, a Native-American Thunder God, and mysterious snipers. Treasure seekers, a sinister Native-American factotum, a scary plane trip, a nighttime visit to a cemetery, spirits wanting their deaths expiated, and a newspaper reporter all become critical factors in Carlos’ search. In discovering the identities he seeks, he also finds that the dead can have a power over the living that cannot be resisted. To resolve the mystery, Carlos must remake the past, and restore lives shattered by meaningless death.
Click here to buy Superstition!
Click here to read about
mysteries of Superstition Mountain,
Arizona, the backstory for Superstiton.
Read the first pages of Superstition.
Read some pages inside Superstition.
(Click on the tab that says "Look Inside.")
"When you choose to counter the natural order and awaken the dead and bring them back into our world, they have ways of making you pay
for it. The ways of the dead are mysterious, as
are the ways of the living, and their conjunction is a powerful event...."
Carlos, a psychic detective from New York City, is drawn into the case of a middle- aged Scottsdale woman seeking the identity of her missing father. In touch with the dead, Carlos soon learns that the case is far more complicated. His investigation leads him to Superstition Mountain in Arizona and into real and psychic dangers that a series of dreams warn him about. Staying in a beautiful home in Scottsdale that he calls the “Palace,” Carlos gets a taste of “the good life” unlike his flat in New York City. His hostess shows him a series of old photos that offer a path into events at Superstition in 1942 and trigger premonitions of violence threatening Carlos’ life. Several hiking trips into Superstition to “The Massacre Grounds” put Carlos in danger of rattlesnakes, a Native-American Thunder God, and mysterious snipers. Treasure seekers, a sinister Native-American factotum, a scary plane trip, a nighttime visit to a cemetery, spirits wanting their deaths expiated, and a newspaper reporter all become critical factors in Carlos’ search. In discovering the identities he seeks, he also finds that the dead can have a power over the living that cannot be resisted. To resolve the mystery, Carlos must remake the past, and restore lives shattered by meaningless death.
Click here to buy Superstition!
Click here to read about
mysteries of Superstition Mountain,
Arizona, the backstory for Superstiton.
Read the first pages of Superstition.
Read some pages inside Superstition.
(Click on the tab that says "Look Inside.")
Duplicity
This is the story of Carlos, '60's counterculture refugee, who earns a meager living as a psychic detective in New York City in the '90's. Prompted by a message seen on a blackboard, Carlos embarks on the kind of case he relishes--a mystery from the past. In 1930, New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater vanished, never to be seen again. Aided by psychic friends, Carlos seeks out Crater's spirit. Angry at being called to answer questions, the spirit issues a warning: Carlos will learn Crater's fate, but will suffer for it. The mystery follows Carlos, revealing Crater's past of violence, dual personality and psychic murder. Powerfully intermingling the lives and consciousness of two men-one dead and the other alive-Duplicity demonstrates the power of the dead over the living. For Carlos, it's a journey into possession by an evil spirit and the merging of his personality with Crater's reliving the last days of the missing man's life-revealing themes of disappearance, dualities of existence, and personal disintegration, ending with Crater's death-and perhaps Carlos' death as well.
Follow the trail of the missing judge and learn more about Duplicity. Click here.
Click here to read some reviews of Duplicity.
Click here to read the start of Duplicity.
Click here to buy Duplicity
This is the story of Carlos, '60's counterculture refugee, who earns a meager living as a psychic detective in New York City in the '90's. Prompted by a message seen on a blackboard, Carlos embarks on the kind of case he relishes--a mystery from the past. In 1930, New York Supreme Court Judge Joseph Crater vanished, never to be seen again. Aided by psychic friends, Carlos seeks out Crater's spirit. Angry at being called to answer questions, the spirit issues a warning: Carlos will learn Crater's fate, but will suffer for it. The mystery follows Carlos, revealing Crater's past of violence, dual personality and psychic murder. Powerfully intermingling the lives and consciousness of two men-one dead and the other alive-Duplicity demonstrates the power of the dead over the living. For Carlos, it's a journey into possession by an evil spirit and the merging of his personality with Crater's reliving the last days of the missing man's life-revealing themes of disappearance, dualities of existence, and personal disintegration, ending with Crater's death-and perhaps Carlos' death as well.
Follow the trail of the missing judge and learn more about Duplicity. Click here.
Click here to read some reviews of Duplicity.
Click here to read the start of Duplicity.
Click here to buy Duplicity
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