My name is Louis Santiago, I’m a middle-aged Puerto Rican man living in New York, and I write speculative fiction. I hate AI so much that I wrote about how AI Dungeon worried me all the way back in October of 2020, and my pronouns are he/him.
What genre do you write?
I started out writing Fantasy. Well, that’s a little generous: I started out as a kid destroying notepads with tons of ideas for my own a totally original SNES JRPG in grade school. That game split into multiple ideas in high school, and those shifted into novel ideas when I started appreciating more reading assignments.
By college, I finally started putting pen to paper with my first attempt at a novel. It definitely wasn’t just a glorified Castlevania novelization–totally wasn’t.
Also, it was called War of Exiles and it was just awful. I wrote about it a bunch on this site back in the day (this site is nearly 20 years old) but nowadays, I just look back and laugh at how that title makes it sound like a shitty mobile game.
Post-college, I migrated to Sci-Fi, and now, as an older man living in the worst timeline possible, on the (maybe) far end of multiple reconstructive surgeries to combat a congenital joint disease, I write Horror.
Why Horror?
I’ve actually always written Horror. That first totes-not-Castlevania novel was Fantasy/Horror. Then, the first short story I ever got published was Fantasy/Horror. Then, the second short story that got published (read for a podcast) was Sci-Fi/Horror. Seriously, the least Horror I’ve ever gone was my second novel, which was still Dark Fantasy.
The writing was always on the wall, but I spent a long time just trying to be happy, writing Fantasy adventures instead. Now in the 2020 timeline though, I figure, “Fuck it.”
But, on top of that, there’s a certain freedom with Horror that I need right now. You aren’t expected to make a Horror story a feel-good blast. You aren’t expected to keep any of your characters alive and give them happy endings. You can be as raw and real as you want and give voice to the worst things you can imagine. In a country where a Latine is likely to get disappeared by masked assholes for doing absolutely nothing–a country where there’s way too much media pressuring us to accept the rich, corrupt scumbags ruining our lives–I will take all the freedom I can get.
But, even more on top of that, Horror is just awesome. Amazingly versatile, full of interesting subgenres (from creepypastas to psychological). And, of course, it’s a great vehicle for describing wild monsters.
What’s not to love?
You said you’ve had your work published?
Yes. My first was “Aixa the Hexcaster,” published with Mirror Dance in 2016. My second was “A Facet of That Faceless Death,” which was performed for the NoSleep Podcast in 2024. You can read a free transcript of the latter here.
I want to support you. Do you have a Patreon?
I do not. No shade on people who have crowdfunding support–I just can’t do it. Partially because I’m too busy to keep up with anything monthly, and partially because I have a hard time asking people for help. My plan has always been to actually make a product I can sell somewhere, that way fans who want to support can have a little extra something tangible, entertaining, and/or useful in return.
I’ve been working up to making something good enough to put out there, and now, in 2026, I’m finally approaching the point where I might be able to unveil that something soon (depending on how plans go). If you want to support for now, just stay tuned and know that I appreciate you.
L. Santiago
Inktrap 