About Charles Tabb

Hello, there! I’m happy you decided to join me. My name is Charles Tabb, and I am an award-winning fiction author. So grab your favorite beverage and sit back to enjoy what you can find here. If you like to read, you will enjoy what I have to offer.

After spending three decades teaching English to middle and high school students, I gained knowledge of what makes a good story, an awareness that has helped me greatly in my second career. I consider two things to be crucial to a good story: a good plot and characters the reader cares about. If a story has those, and is molded with care, it can’t fail.

I grew up in the Florida Panhandle, and an incident when I was around eleven spurred me to write my debut novel, Floating Twigs. The book is proof that good can come from a bad event if approached in the right way. I consider Floating Twigs my personal masterpiece, and so far the vast majority of its readers agree, according to the online reviews. (Be sure to read them!) I am honored that this book is being received so well.

I began writing my detective series, beginning with Hell is Empty, because I love that genre and find it the most interesting, along with millions of other readers. I claim no special knowledge of crime other than I’ve read well over a thousand crime novels and enjoy “true crime” shows on TV. Beyond that, Tony Pantera, my fictional detective and part-time blues piano player, is an interesting and likable guy who is learning to accept himself and others for who they are. Like many of us, though, he struggles with that.

Two of my short stories have received awards, and several of my stories have been published by various online literary journals.

 I am married and enjoy spending time with my family, especially my two granddaughters, and being entertained by my dogs. My wife and I live in the Richmond, Virginia, area with our two dogs. two cats, one donkey, and my wife’s two horses, one off-the track thoroughbred and a warm blood. (Yes, all horses are warm-blooded, but if you know horses, you’ll understand what the category means.) Can you tell we love animals? I am also a die-hard New Orleans Saints fan, but that’s another story.