T. M. Gray

Infobox Writer
name = T. M. Gray


birthdate = birth date and age|1963|11|23
birthplace = Bar Harbor, Maine, United States
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Novelist
Short story writer
Columnist
Illustrator

genre = Horror fiction
nonfiction

movement =
"Short stories" = Compassion
Unforgivable
Night Song
"Novels" = Mr. Crisper
The Ravenous
Ghosts of Eden
"Illustrations" = Mr. Crisper, The Book of Monsters
"Influences" = Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, Poppy Z. Brite, William Peter Blatty, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Bentley Little (The Ravenous), Thomas Tryon, Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, M. Night Shyamalan
website = http://www.tmgray.tk]

T. M. Gray (born November 23, 1963 in Bar Harbor, Maine) is an American horror author of many short stories, several novels and a nonfiction book on ghost hunting. Gray lives in Birch Harbor, Maine and is a member of the Horror Writers Association.

Biography

Early life

At four years of age, Gray's family moved from Bar Harbor, Maine to nearby Winter Harbor, Maine. T. M. Gray attended schools in Gouldsboro, Maine and Sullivan, Maine and took secretarial classes in Bangor, Maine. At age 17, she wrote her first novel and met Stephen King in October 1980. In December of that year, she fell in love with Robert Gray, a lobster fisherman from Wonsqueak Harbor, Maine. They married on August 10, 1984. They have two children, son Thomas Gardner (born in 1985) and a daughter Robyn Elizabeth (born in 1991) [Hubbard, John "Mistress of Terror - Gouldsboro Writer’s Horror Tales Appear on the Web and in Print" "Ellsworth American" January 3, 2002]

Career

T. M. Gray's professional writing career began with short horror stories. "Compassion" was one of the first to be published (in 1999 at Bloody Muse, a zine owned by Bram Stoker winning author Weston Oches). Since then, Gray's stories have been published in print magazines such as "Morbid Curiosity", "Thirteen Stories", "Scared Naked" and in various anthologies ("Small Bites", "The Blackest Death, Vol. II", and "Femmes de la Brumme" to name a few). [ [http://www.tmgray.tk/stories T.M. Gray's bibliography] ]

Gray's first novel, a rambling, error-ridden erotic vampire tale written in high school, was never published, nor was Gray's second novel, "Eriksson's Vinlanda", a work based on the Icelandic Sagas. The third try was a charm, however when "Mr. Crisper" (mass market size tpb) was published in 2004 by Hellbound Books, and later that year The Ravenous (trade paperback) was published by Black Death Books. Ghosts of Eden (hardcover) was published in 2005 by Five Star, a Thomson Gale imprint. Gray's nonfiction Ghosts of Maine was published by Schiffer Books in February 2008.

Writing style

In an interview with Staci Layne Wilson of About.com, T.M. Gray admits being drawn to write dark tales at a young age. " [Fairytales] triggered something in my psyche as a small child. Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel, perhaps...and later on, George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and King's novel "Salem's Lot". I've been asked why I chose horror as a genre for my writing. I always say it's the other way around: "horror chose me"." [http://horror.about.com/od/interviews/a/auth_gray.htm]

Gray revealed the most memorable thing anyone has said about her work in an interview at The Eternal Night, a book review site in Britain. Says Gray: "Well, a few years ago, I submitted a story to an editor who wrote back and said it was the sickest thing she ever read, but then she said it was "sick in the best sense of the word". I may be warped, but knowing that the editor had seen a lot of bizarre stuff in her career, I took her comment as a huge compliment, especially since the story was as psychological as it was gritty-physical. I went on to sell it elsewhere (twice!), and it received a Stoker recommendation, so I guess others thought it "sick" as well." [ [http://www.eternalnight.co.uk/chronicle/c31/graytm.html The Chronicle Issue 31 - T.M. Gray Q&A - The Eternal Night Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Web Site ] ]

Gray's books and stories take place in Maine, and according to a 2005 Library Journal review: "Gray ("Mr. Crisper" and "The Ravenous") continues her tradition of creating compelling horror tales with a strong foothold in setting and regional folklore." [Library Journal (2005), Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc.] In a 2005 interview by Kopfhalter! magazine, Gray explains why so many of her works happen in coastal Maine: "I like to think it's more cerebral than merely writing what I know, but when it comes right down to the wire, New England is a fairly scary place. Without question, coastal Downeast Maine is beautiful, breathtaking even, but bottom line is this: it's an isolated, harsh and natural beauty, and nature itself is neutral, neither bad nor good. It just "is". Only when something terrible happens...it seems mighty evil. That's what's really frightening: the misinterpretation of events and the inability to foresee what lies ahead..." [Kopfhalter! Winnepeg, Canada, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pgs. 23-26.]

Collaborations

Over the years T.M. Gray has teamed up with other writers. In 2003, she and fellow Maine horror writer Mark Edward Hall wrote 'The Ruby Necklace', a short story published by Lost Village Publishing Enterprises. In 2004, Gray and British horror writer Mark West penned the novel 'White Meat'. A collaboration of a new novel is in the works by Gray, West and New York horror writer, Darren Franz. [Gray Splatter, Nov. 2004 issue]

Reviews

Gray's books have been favorably reviewed by David Niall Wilson in Cemetery Dance magazine, Michael Laimo, James Newman and Brian Keene. A book review in the Bangor Daily News (February 2005) declares "T.M. Gray proves herself a writer to watch in the horror field." In an Amazon.com review, Harriet Klausner writes: "T.M. Gray has talent and will one day be one of the superstars of the genre..."

References

External links

* [http://www.tmgray.tk/ T.M. Gray's Official Web Site]

Persondata
NAME=Gray, T.M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Gray, Theresa Marie
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American author
DATE OF BIRTH=23 November 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH=Bar Harbor, Maine
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=