Ralph Vaughan

Ralph E. Vaughan is the author of the best-selling DCI Arthur Ravyn Mystery series, classic whodunits set in the (probably) fictional county of Hammershire, where change comes slowly if at all, the past often intrudes upon the present, and old things sometimes refuse to die.

He has also written several Sherlock Holmes novels and stories, notably "The Adventure of the Ancient Gods," the first-ever crossover between the literary worlds of Holmes and Lovecraft.

He is also a noted Western writer, having written a half-dozen novels set in the Old West.

He is the creator of the popular Paws & Claws adventure series, in which the amazing canines of the Three Dog Detective Agency protect fellow pets in their Chula Vista neighborhood and occasionally save the world.

Among his science fiction books are "Shadows Against the Empire" and "Amidst Dark Satanic Mills," interplanetary steampunk adventures set in the late 19th Century.

A writer since the late 1960s, he has published more than 300 short stories in a variety of magazines and journals, some of which are included in "Beneath Strange Stars," a collection of tales from more than forty years of writing.

He is a long-time resident of Chula Vista, California, graduating from Castle Park High School and Southwestern College, leaving his hometown only long enough to serve as an Army photojournalist for two terms. He is married and has two children, a daughter who is an IT manager, playwright and director, and a son who works for a railroad company in the Midwest.