October 13, 2006
The "Official Bio"
Douglas Clegg was born in Virginia, but by the time he was five had lived in Hawaii and Connecticut, as well. After taking up writing at the age of eight, he didn't sit down to write his first novel until he was in his late 20s.
This novel was called Goat Dance, and sold to Simon & Schuster and came out in 1989 in the Pocket imprint. Since then, he's seen more than 20 novels published and more than 45 short stories. Under his pen name, Andrew Harper, he's written three novels in a serial about a hospital for the criminally insane.
In 1999, his first short story collection, The Nightmare Chronicles, won both the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild Award.
Also, in 1999, he pioneered the use of the internet with fiction when he launched the world's first publisher-sponsored eserial novel, called Naomi, which went on to sell both hardcover and paperback.
In 2005, this second collection, The Machinery of Night, won a Shocker Award from the readers at Shocklines.com.
Various novels and novellas have been optioned for the movies, and he's written horror, suspense, and fantasy fiction.
In 2005, his novel, The Priest of Blood, hit the New York Times extended list.
He lives on the coast of New England with his civilly unioned partner of many years, Raul Silva, as well as a small menageries of rescued animals. He recommends that anyone who is looking for a pet should visit the local animal shelter, pound, or veterinary office to see if the perfect pet isn't available.
And now, from Doug:
I always say that if you want to know me, read my novels. But the truth is, I prefer that I'm a bit anonymous at times. I like writing fiction because I don't have to be in front of people all the time.
Instead, I get to write from my imagination, and my publishers and these wonderful booksellers get the books in your hands. I can putter around the house and along the beautiful coastline where I currently live, hang out with a few friends, and just be fairly private.
I can't thank readers enough for coming to this page, and I hope you'll journey with me wherever my imagination goes in these novels and stories. Thank you.
January 14, 2007
About Writing
I've always written -- well, since I was about six or seven. At about the age of almost-9, my mother handed me a typewriter (that was a child-sized model) and said, "Write a story."
Up until then, I thought I'd be an artist -- I painted and sketched and doodled all the time.
But that day, I sat down and wrote a story about our pet mockingbird that had just died. And then, I started writing other stories.
I rarely showed these stories to people, although now and then -- over the next twenty years, they'd surface in a class.
When I was a high school senior I wrote a "Senior Project" (our version of a thesis) -- this was a novella-length work called "Asylum." I received an Honors designation for it. At that moment, I knew I would somehow write novels.
But I didn't sit down to write an actual novel for several years. I wrote my first novel Goat Dance in a small studio in North Hollywood, California, sent it out -- and it was eventually bought by Simon & Schuster's paperback division, Pocket Books.
Since then, I've written several more novels, a screenplay or two, and short stories and even some poetry.
I write constantly, and spend most of my time working out who the people in a new novel are before I sit down to begin the specific writing of that novel. I don't work from an outline, but my first draft is like a long outline. I then revise, revise, revise, until the novel is just where I want it to be.
If you're an aspiring writer, I can point you to three great resources for novelists:
If you ever want to ask me a question or contact me,
just click here.
