Ray Garton Explained

Ray Garton Jr.
Birth Date:2 December 1962
Birth Place:Redding, California, US
Occupation:Author
Years Active:1984 - 2023
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Notable Works:Live Girls (1986)
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Ray Garton Jr. (December 2, 1962April 21, 2024) was an American author of horror fiction for adults and young adults.

Personal life

Ray Garton Jr. was born in Redding, California, on December 2, 1962. He was adopted by Pat and Ray Garton, the latter being a World War II veteran. Garton grew up in Anderson, California, where he only attended religious schools. Raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he had left by adulthood, calling it a "pseudo-Christian cult." Garton married his wife, Dawn, around 1989. Weeks after being diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer, he died on April 21, 2024, at the age of 61.

Career

Garton was first published before age 22. In the 1980s, Garton worked for Pinnacle Books in New York City.

Growing up, Garton's media influences included Bob Wilkins' Creature Features, Dark Shadows, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Boris Karloff, Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, Bela Lugosi, and Edgar Allan Poe. He further credited child abuse and church-induced eschatological fears with inspiring his interest in horror fiction. Beginning with seeing 13 Ghosts, the genre was an outlet that took his then-lifelong fear "and made it fun." In 2009, he explained that horror was not his intention when beginning writing, rather "that's just what came out".

In the early 1990s, he was hired by Ed and Lorraine Warren to write a book about Carmen Snedeker, her ill son, and their family's house (allegedly a former funeral home) that was infested with anal-rapist demons. After he found various Snedekers' stories to be contradictory, Garton says the Warrens told him "Everybody who comes to us is crazy. Otherwise why would they come to us? You've got some of the story – just use what works and make the rest up. And make it scary." He did so, and after A Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting was published, Garton revealed his side of - and contributions to - the story, which was denounced by the Warrens and Snedekers. The book was oft miscategorized as non-fiction, and both the Discovery Channel (A Haunting in Connecticut) and Lionsgate Films (The Haunting in Connecticut) produced docudramas based on his work.

By August 2006, he had written over 50 books, with Dread Central calling Live Girls his "crowning achievement" at that time. By late 2019, his canon had increased to 68 books.

Accolades

Live Girls was a Bram Stoker Award nominee. In 2006, Garton was bestowed the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award.

Published works

When writing for young adults, to prevent that audience from accidentally reading works not written for their age level, Garton published under the pen name Joseph Locke. He also wrote under the pseudonym Arthur Darknell.

Collections

, Locus listed two original collections published by Garton:

Novelettes

, Locus listed five original novelettes published by Garton:

Novelizations

Novellas

Novels

Young adult

, Locus listed eight young-adult novels published by Joseph Locke (with one under his real name):

Stories

, Locus listed nine original short stories published by Garton:

Editing

Other

, Locus listed two additional non-fiction works published by Garton:

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