Garton, Ray
Garton, Ray (1962–)
(pop culture)Ray Garton, a horror writer who has authored several vampire novels, was the product of a fairly normal upbringing in California. However, in spite of his protestations that he has no particular relationship to either the dark side of life or violence, he has produced a series of novels that open up a dark, violent world. While his first vampire novel was Seductions (1984), he has received most attention for two later works, Live Girls (1987) and Lot Lizards (1991).
Live Girls traced the downward spiral of Davey Owen who was drawn into a porn center off Times Square in New York City only to discover that the “live girls” promised were really undead females who kept their clientele coming back with their very special bite. A deluxe edition of the hard-to-find book was released in 1997 by Cemetery Dance Publications along with a CD recording of music inspired by the novel by Vlad (of the Dark Theater), under his full name, Scott Vladimir Licina. Lot Lizards is set on the West Coast at a rural truck stop which is inhabited by a group of vampires who prey on the truckers who initially accept their advances with offers of sex.
In the twenty-first century, Garton has continued to show some attention to vampires in his Buffy the Vampire Slayer book, Resurrecting Ravana (2000), and a new novel Night Life (2007), a sequel to Live Girls, in which the two main vampire characters have moved from life in the big city to a more prosaic existence in the suburbs.
Garton resides in rural northern California.
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