Thomas Rydder

I was born in 1957 in a small town in Western Pennsylvania that had - and still has - one traffic light. There wasn't a whole lot to do there, and we had few neighbors, so I learned to play quite a bit of make-believe - soldiers, cowboys and Indians, that kind of thing. At the same time, I loved to read and watch old movies. On Saturdays, my dad played in a country western band, and I stayed up to wait for him. It was during that stretch that I discovered the horror movie. You know the ones I mean. Karloff, Chaney, Lee. The masters, right?

Since then, I've been fascinated with the supernatural, particularly werewolves, and one day, I decided to take a shot at writing about them. So I sat down and found a writing site called Hubpages. Nice little site, and I started getting the basics of writing a little from some of the inhabitants. I wrote a short story, and everyone liked it. So, I wrote another one. Except it kept growing, I kept getting more ideas, and it lengthened to 20 thousand words, then 30, then 40. By the time I sat back, I had the rough draft of my first novel, then called "Werewolves and Flapjacks". I submitted my work to a small press near London, Greyhart Press. The gentleman who runs that fine organization, Mr. Tim Taylor, decided to take a chance on me, and for that, I will be forever grateful.

So. Now my debut novel is called "The Clearing". I don't know where I came up with the idea. Some shred of one of those old delightful movies perhaps, superimposed on modern times. It just came, and I just typed - simple as that. I do know that I modeled the story's location after my little one-lighted home town. And every one of the characters in my book shares either a first or last name from my life in the sleepy burg of Apollo, Pa.

I do hope you decide to pick up my book. And if you do, I hope even more you enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, rejoice, because I'm working on the sequel! Even though I make wise cracks about all of it, this is all like living a dream - and I don't plan on waking up for a very long time.

Thomas Rydder - writer of spooky stuff