[3] Growing up, Garton's media influences included Bob Wilkins' Creature Features, Dark Shadows, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Boris Karloff, Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, Bela Lugosi, and Edgar Allan Poe.

He further credited child abuse and church-induced eschatological fears with inspiring his interest in horror fiction.

[3] In the early 1990s, he was hired by Ed and Lorraine Warren to write a book about Carmen Snedeker, her ill son, and their family's house—allegedly a former funeral home that was infested with anal-rapist demons.

[3] By August 2006, he had written over 50 books, with Dread Central calling Live Girls his "crowning achievement" at that time.

[3] When writing for young adults, to prevent that audience from accidentally reading works not written for their age level,[5] Garton published under the pen name Joseph Locke.