Writing as PAUL E. BLACKWELL, P.J. Bracegirdle is the author of the middle-grade series the Joy of Spooking (S&S/McElderry) and the recently published picture book The Dead Family Diaz (Penguin/Dial). He has previously worked at a variety of jobs, from keeping the stage door of a haunted old Scottish theatre to pushing laundry carts along dark tunnels under an insane asylum. He lives in Montreal.