Aiden S. Clarke has been a storyteller from the time he was in grammar school, having won his first contest at an early age. His primary influences were authors Tony Hillerman, Larry McMurtry, Victor Villaseñor and a peculiar middle school teacher with a passion for the desert. As a teenager, Aiden began making frequent trips throughout the American southwest, sketching monuments and seeking further inspiration for his writing career. His greatest love became the Mojave National Preserve and the East Mojave Scenic Area. He also nurtured a strange affection for the crossroads town of Barstow.

At a volunteer event in 2014, the idea for Lyndy Martinez was born, kicking off a series of modern westerns centered on a no-nonsense, adventure bound Latina from east LA. To date, there are over a dozen novel-length Lyndy Martinez stories and standalone short fiction too, featuring recurring characters. A Lyndy Martinez manuscript titled Sunriver Heart, received honorable mention in the 2024 Southwest Writers contest. Others stories in the series have received high praise.

Since those early days Aiden Clarke has been actively researching and working to preserve the history and culture of the American Southwest. Aiden’s creative fiction is intended to be a humorous yet thought provoking tribute to this unique landscape. Generally, his cast of quirky characters inhabit desert wildlands, and their adventures take place from the 1980s – 2000s, a time of rapid evolution on the backroads of America.

Guiding Principles:

1.) First and foremost, I am a patriot. I love the USA and the shared common values upon which it was founded. 2.) I respect all persons and am opposed to any form of prejudice, whether based on ethnicity, orientation, beliefs or something else. It is never my goal to offend. On the contrary, I sometimes try to highlight how painful it can be to be marginalized. 3.) My writing style is intended to be a mixture of humor (50%) and serious thoughtful (50%) content. 4.) This is just a hobby and meant to be fun + positive. There is no particular end goal. 5.) I always write about strong female and male protagonists who are assertive and intelligent. Every character should be respectful and true to who they are. 6.) The time period of my books is typically split between past (~1980s) and near present. 7.) I don’t believe anyone should actually smoke, but because of the decade they live in, my characters occasionally do. It was just a different time. Definitely don’t imitate them.