The Inventive Dystopian Horror Fiction of Bay City Author Dr. Ray Clark

When it comes to local authors cultivating a reputation for creating stylistically innovative and topically risky works of contemporary fiction designed to engage new generations of readers who’s attention spans have been shortened by the vagaries of social media, Dr. Ray W. Clark is truly in a league all his own.

His first writing gig came back when he started submitting a column to The REVIEW back in 1992 and was trying to emulate his literary hero, gonzo journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, who built a legendary reputation writing for Rolling Stone magazine; however Ray found it to be unsustainable for many obvious and some not so obvious reasons. “I’ve always liked a lot of books, but would never finish them because it’s an ADHD thing - the more I talk about writing the less I do it.”

All that changed after Clark wrote his first two books, Driver 5 (2012), and Groovy (2013) in his car during lunch hour, followed by K and J (2014), which comprise ‘The Driver 5 Series’. The first two books will now be released together in a collection called Driver 5 Stories at a special Book Launch on Saturday, Nov. 1^st, at 11:00 AM at Charlin’s Book Nook, 925 S. Main St. D-7 in Frankenmuth.

“Both of these books are in the horror genre and are essentially stories about Zombies, but they’re also written from a perspective and within the context of alternative history,” he explains. “For example, in the first book Adolf Hitler wins the second world war and nukes a bunch of countries with chemicals that turn everyone exposed into a zombie, so it’s sort of like Death Race 2005 in that sense. The protagonist then needs to go from Indianapolis to Detroit to kill Hitler at Tiger Stadium.”

Clark’s newest books are "The House On Melvin Road" (2024) which is about ghost hunting gone horribly wrong, and "Attack Of The Shadow People" (2024) that deals the things that happen  when you bargain with shadow people. 

However, his biggest and most successful book to date is a children’s book titled You Have a Stinky Butt (2014)  about his cats and the crazy things they do. The Fuzzy Bottom Books Series, as they are called, also have two more installments entitled These Aren't the Cats You Are Looking For and The Floor is Lava.

“With my second book, Groovy, which was the follow-up that came out in 2013, we have Richard Nixon declare himself emperor and use his zombies to attack his political opponents,” relates Clark.  “We find out that he killed JFK and Nixon is finally caught at The Masonic Temple after this convoluted chase in Bay City.”

After publishing his first books Clark took a break from writing because he started watching people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, so says he was working in a lot of nursing homes.  “I didn’t start writing again until I began watching and caring for people at their house, Clark explains.” I started writing The House on Melvin Road while doing this and it also takes place in Bay City. The Children’s’ Books are all about my cats and how they try to trick each other for treats.”

“With the Melvin Road book I was watching this guy named Melvin Rauschert and he ended up passing away, but his wife Maureen needed assistance  so I was watching her at her house and wrote the entire book during the commercial breaks while watching TV with her. After she passed her daughter said she left some money to me to sponsor my writing, which gae me time to pull it all together.”

Clark says he became infatuated with writing horror and zombie books after watching the classic horror film Dawn of the Dead at the mall in the 1980s. “It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. As for other horror writers who kind of informed my sensibilities, I like Stephan King and Peter Straub quite a lot.”

When it comes to plot development with his work, Clark says he always likes to start by thinking about a bad event that might happen and then ask himself how he can make that event worse through character development.

“I try not to make it like how I would do it, but how I see other people doing things, which has made me much more observant,” he reflects. “I study peoples’ behavior and their reaction to things. It’s spooky because people have this temper now after ten years of conditioning and arguing on Facebook without retaliation, so they get big heads and then wonder why they get the crap kicked out of them in public because they forget that free speech always comes with consequences. Social media sets up these echo chambers that keep people at one another, so I don’t even bother watching the news or dealing with social media much anymore.”

With manufactured divisiveness aligned with shortened retention spans, Clark’s short and succinct stylistic approach to crafting his books has generated a cult following and collective sales of over 6000 copies to date. 

“I generally don’t go over 150 pages, so actually my books are more like a novella, or a cross between a short story and a short novel. I also double-space the text and use a bigger font when publishing, because if I don’t they won’t get read,” he states.  “I’ve learned this from watching the elderly and autistic kids.”

“House on Melvin Road I wrote in about two months and Attack of the Shadow People came in about 45-days. I just finished one last Saturday,” he continues. “It’s a vampire story called We Do Not Glitter, which is not traditional because it doesn’t romance any of the characters. It’s about a bunch of vampires who live in a house in Bay City and lure people in through Facebook by using mind control and using unconventional methods such as draining their victims’ blood instead of drinking it so they can harvest the organs and sell them. I should have three new books completed by the end of the month. One I’m working on at this moment is called The Ouija Board Massacres and that’s about half of Bay City getting possessed by demons.”

“The people at Charlin’s Book Nook have been really good to me,” concludes Ray. “That was the where I held my first book signing back in 2012 and I was one of their first featured authors when they first opened. They open at 11:00 AM and I’ll be there all day, plus people can also order copies  of all my books on Amaazon.com or through my Facebook Page.”