Growing up in the 80's, at the age of 13 I was introduced to the fantasy role playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). After a night of playing D&D with my friends, I would sit in my bedroom writing stories of the adventures I played in the game. As time went on, I took to Game Mastering a variety of role playing games, including D&D, and I attribute the cultivation and honing of my imagination and storytelling skills to the role playing games I have played through the years. I still play D&D to this day and I feel that anyone interested in storytelling should take part in a role playing game of some sort.

 

It was Henry Kuttner’s 1936 short story, “The Graveyard Rats”, that heavily influenced my desire to write horror. Since the age of 16, no other horror story I have ever read has scared me or given me such a feeling of dread and helplessness as Kuttner’s claustrophobic tale of terror, and I am dedicated to finding that one story within myself capable of recreating that feeling in my own readers.
 

In 2015, I created my alter-ego, "Clive Carpenter", and have published 3 books with several more on the way. My stories and writing style can be quick and brutal and my readers appreciate the fact that I don't waste time with a lot descriptive wordage.

 

I write my best horror when I'm angry and I enjoy telling people that if they really make me mad, I won’t get even… I’ll just skin them alive in my next story. So, it is possible that some of the names or characters in my stories are based upon real people… but I ain’t sayin’.

 

I grew up in the 80’s and I only listen to 80’s music, which is usually blasting while I'm writing.

 

I am also an award winning filmmaker, screenwriter, artist, card and board game inventor, makeup artist, and seasoned photographer and I'm a member of the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.

Aside from my love of telling horror stories, I am also writing several adventure tales, including "Adrift", a WW2 novella; "Mettle of Honor", a survival tale of a Vietnam vet; "Den of Blood", a western novella; and "Fields of Freedom", a series of short stories set during the American Revolution.

Fun Fact: My pen name is a mashup of two of my favorite horror icons, Clive Barker and John Carpenter and is the main character in a horror anthology feature length screenplay I wrote in 2005 called Mind Shadows.