David Simms was born and raised in Carteret, New Jersey, the town on which the home setting of DARK MUSE was based. Living close to the dark side of the state, a place where many mysteries and legends resided, he took to exploring the area and neighboring towns on bicycles with friends, often discovering things which should have been left alone and places unvisited.
At age nine, he was forced to play the guitar, a chore which turned into a passion that still burns daily. At ten, his parents forced saxophone on him since guitar wasn’t allowed in the school band. By age fifteen, he began writing music and forming awful bands but loving the magic in the songs and playing. Trapped in band, he often transposed hard rock songs such as the ones found within the story into sax solos, drawing death stares from the nuns who ran the school. As he was already deemed doomed to a horrid fate for being left-handed, the musical assault continued – and grew. A stint as a music major in college turned into a love of the blues and other genres of music, but left him destined to head for Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in psychology while finding time to obtain a teaching license.
Years later, after surviving years as a special education teacher and behaviorist/therapist, he sold his first story and knew the lands discovered as a child in Carteret would somehow emerge in writing. He studied music therapy and still teaches the healing power of song to schools who will listen. Those who do open their ears find students (and teachers) learning better, relaxing more, and improving negative behaviors and emotions. In 2006, he joined the Killer Thriller Band after selling a handful of stories. The only member of the band not to have successful novel, he joined such writing icons as David (Rambo) Morrell, F. Paul Wilson, Heather Graham, John Lescroart, Michael Palmer, Scott Nicholson, Nathan Walpow, Alexandra Sokoloff, and actress/author Harley Jane Kozak in performing a set of classic rock songs. After a couple of other Thrillerfest shows, the Slushpile branched off and included Heather Graham, F. Paul Wilson, Alexandra Sokoloff, and others in performing around the country, even once being allowed to play on the historic Brighton Pier in England. Currently, the band still performs, most recently at a pair of House of Blues venues (Cleveland and Disney World) but will always find New Orleans a home away from home.
David escaped New Jersey in 2011 to move to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, a far cry from the town fictionalized in the novel. Still teaching, middle school and high school special education, he writes on the porch with a view of the mountains in all directions. He lives in Staunton, Virginia with his wife, two cats, Edgar and Derry, and newborn son, Sawyer where he is completing the next Crossroads novel along with a book on one of America’s darkest secrets.