About Craig

I was born thirty-five years ago in Warwickshire, England. My childhood was a blessed one, spent in the company of loving family and adventurous friends. We lived in various small towns around the rolling hills and fields of Leicestershire and I spent most of my time lost in the children’s adventure books of Enid Blyton, or roaming the dark woods near my home. There’s something impossibly alluring about a woodland trail, dappled in sunlight, yet leading away into shadow and the subtle promise of secret things beyond. I think it’s in those woods that my love of story truly began.

When I was about eight, a family friend gave me a stash of Weird Tales and D.C. Witching Hour comics against my parent’s wishes. I don’t recall owning those comics for long. I don’t really know what happened to them – perhaps my parents responsibly removed them from the house – but it was too little, too late. My pliable young mind, already full of ghosts and robots and faerie, had taken a deliciously dark turn.

I never fully recovered.

And boy am I glad of that.

Fast-forward to 1999 and I met a wonderful woman who accepted my daydreams for what they were. Unfortunately she lived almost 4000 miles and an ocean away. Not one to balk at a challenge, I moved to America to be with her and we were married in North Carolina just nine days after the World Trade Centers fell (I promise we didn’t have anything to do with that). My wife is a stand-up comedian, a screenwriter and the sharpest intellect I’ve ever met. When I write, I write to impress her.

Sometimes it works.

As a Brit, adjusting to life in the U.S. has been undeniably difficult. I’ve been asked if I was Australian (common) and Russian (rare), and even if British people live in real houses (I told them that we live in igloos). I think I’m almost fully adjusted now – having discovered how to create my own Heinz salad cream from a secret mixture of Miracle Whip and honey mustard. My wife and I now live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with our two cats – Rogue and Pikey. You’ll probably catch us around the various stand-up comedy venues in town on a Friday night.

I’m a long-time member of the Milwaukee Writer’s Workshop, pioneered by the relentlessly talented Mr. J.B. Dryden, and I can’t say enough about how being a member of such a great writing community has helped my writing grow and find its way. If you’re interested in the Milwaukee Writers Workshop you will find a link to them in my ‘links’ section.

So what do I write? Truth be told, I haven’t quite figured that out myself yet.

Ever since those days in my childhood, tucked under the bedsheets with a cheap plastic flashlight and scary comic, I always wanted to be a horror author, or at the very least a writer of weird fiction. Stephen King, Clive Barker, James Herbert, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman – these are the fantastic imaginations I aspire to.

But a writer can’t dictate their own style. I’m discovering that style is something that flows out of deeper places and grows organically with every new tale told. The more I write, the more I realize that my stories are exploring aspects of the human condition, without regard to genre. As a result I’ve written not only horror, but also science-fiction, urban fantasy, and contemporary drama.

At first I was disappointed by this apparent inability to live up to my favorite genre, but now I’m starting to accept it. It’s indescribably fun to begin a project wondering where my pen will take me: towards creatures or criminals? Psychics or psychologists? Devil’s triangles or love triangles? I never do know.

Well dear readers, that’s more than enough about me. I can’t thank you enough for stopping by, and I hope I can provide you with many more secretive woodland trails to explore.

Hopefully you won’t always be able to guess what lies around that next bend…