About Clark
Born and raised in the beautiful city of Des Moines, Iowa, he had no idea that he would eventually spend a lot of time in the country that gave Des Moines its name, France! After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, he took various positions before embarking on an entrepreneurial business career. After selling his business interests, Clark and his family enjoyed three years in South America and now shares time between France and the United States.
Clark’s writing of novels began many years ago. He has also been an avid fan and writer of poetry since before his university days. His books, novels, booklets, and poetry now enjoy a worldwide circulation.
Music performance has also been an important part of his life. Starting with his involvement with the Notre Dame Glee Club and then the Omaha Symphonic Chorus, under the direction of future Mormon Tabernacle Choir Director, Craig Jessup, he then began a cappella quartet singing, forming The Fabulous Fourmeldyhides (www.fabfour2.com). Known as “America’s Doowop Sensation,” the group performed with many of the bands of the “oldies’ era including Gary Lewis & the Playboys, The Turtles, the Grass Roots, Frankie Avalon, The Diamonds and the Little River Band, among others. The group performed in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, and were also featured on national television on the shopping network QVC, where they sold 2500 CD’s in just six minutes. He was also a founding member of France’s Doowop Deluxe a cappella quartet (www.doowopdeluxe.com).
In radio since high school in Iowa, Clark was a frequent guest on the radio with the Fourmeldyhides. In 2023, he was very happy to get back into radio, working with radio station radio-harmonie in France serving much of Brittany. His show, “L’invité de Clark,” is a weekly program where he has the pleasure of interviewing interesting people both from the area and around the world in English. It is a twenty minute broadcast, aired twice weekly, at www.radio-harmonie.com/clark.
His study of things spiritual has taken him around the world – from the USA to London, from France to Australia, and Ireland to India. He is a member of the College of Psychic Studies in London, and currently supports the Self-Realization Fellowship of Paramahansa Yogananda in Los Angeles. He has spent time at Plum Village, home of the late famed author and Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, and was present at the Dalai Lama’s visit at Plouray, Brittany, experiencing at arm’s length his extraordinary presence. He has been a long-time student of Transcendental Meditation, and has met with Indian pundits both in situ and in the USA on practical matters and astrology.
He continues to be a student of alternative therapies such as Healing Touch, massage, hypnotherapy and EFT, and has studied with yoga masters in Australia, Ireland and Uruguay. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
These encounters and experiences have taught him that spirituality is about one thing only — direct connection to the Divine — as a part of or independent of an organized religion.
Writing
I am a writer in several genres – novel, booklet, and poetry. Why the novels? So many people are feeling that meaning is missing for them in life. They are disenchanted with their traditional religion, yet feel a spiritual tug. For my protagonist in The Abbey Chronicles Trilogy, Jean Moreau, a modern day monk at the fictional Abbey of Kervennec in France, it is particularly true. In these sometimes tense stories, his memoirs, you will find him often dissatisfied with his traditional religion’s point of view on many levels. Jean’s search for the answer to life’s meaning, his Quest — Divine Connection — is often confounded by the challenges of his deep love for a woman, his passions and emotions, his struggles with a dictatorial abbot fighting his own demons, in addition to his questioning of his traditional religion’s dogma. Through trial and error we follow Jean on this very human journey to satisfy the longing in his soul for Truth and personal gnosis.
I also have written a series of short booklets on Virtues, those unheralded but tremendously important key components to a happy life. It is all in my Jean Moreau’s Little Books of Wisdom series.
I love poetry and have written it all my life. There is no art form more personal or more beautiful, in my opinion.
All books are available on Amazon in eBook, paperback, and increasingly in Audio book format, everywhere in the world. Most eBooks are also available on Kobo, Google books and Apple books.
Q & A
Q: Business career and writing…any connection?
A: People are people. All of the foibles, egos, complexities and kindnesses, whether originating with customers or employees, are always there in any business. I loved my clients and employees and I knew many, like me, were suffering from the stress of rules, rules, rules in their religion or had no spiritual life at all and felt empty with only what society offers. There is much more to see and know about life and spirit, and my novels attempt to show that in a simple yet developed way.
Q: What inspires you?
A: So many things but I think Nature number one (especially trees), followed by great conversations and, of course, music. And, we must never forget as Mark Twain put it, that “against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand!”
Q: What kinds of conversations?
A: I love it when people reveal their truest feelings and beliefs in a discussion. The give and take brings a lot to both parties. People are fascinating and for the most part kind and giving.
Q: You are a musician and have been a professional singer. What inspired that?
A: I came to singing rather late but had some great opportunities to meet so many talented musicians and directors. I learned a lot from Craig Jessup, later director of the great Mormon Tabernacle Choir, John Miller and others as far as choral singing went. Later, however, I was able to corral some guys into singing the music I loved from the fifties and sixties. I was eleven when the British invasion occurred and had received a transistor radio for Christmas in 1963 from a dear aunt, and that’s all it took to be hooked on the Top 40. It’s been a joy to recreate some of those wonderful sounds in so many venues here and in Europe.
The human voice and its beauty will always fascinate me. It is the greatest of instruments.
Q: You write about monasteries. Did you ever think of becoming a monk. You seem to know them so well.
A: Yes, I love monasteries. Nowhere else do I feel the peace that seems to emanate from those good monks, both men and women. A magnificent lifestyle in many ways, but definitely not for everyone. I don’t think I could do it, but I love to visit and stay and renew myself as a guest. I have some great monastic friends. They are wonderful people. As a footnote to that, I didn’t realize how many people are fascinated by that institution…I receive so many comments about how interested readers are in that concept of living, which surprised me. But there is a spiritual hunger out there, so maybe it should not have.
Q: Any more books on the horizon?
A: Oh, yes. I am not done by a long shot. Readers want more from Jean Moreau and we’ll see about that. I will definitely produce more of his books on virtues in his Little Books of Wisdom series. I’d like to do some humorous books, too and have some ideas. I enjoy my podcast with Doc Martens and Mark Twain. Great fun…and funny, we hope – Two Twits and Twain.
Q: Any other thoughts for visitors on The Abbey Chronicles trilogy?
A: Let me quote from a Press Release published by the Associated Press a few years ago which might sum up nicely what I am trying to do in that series.“I am writing this series because I have seen how people, particularly when they reach a certain age, are hungry. Their search for meaning and fulfillment in life has not always been satisfied by their traditional religions,” says Eide. “What satisfies that hunger are not ‘things’ or ‘dogma’. What satisfies is more subtle, waiting to be discovered. It is the spiritual dimension of life. Most have followed the traditional religious path to spirit yet therein lies the issue: over reliance on traditional religion as their only reference to provide answers. But these are often complicated and inadequate, rarely allowing room for one to pursue that connection individually. I wanted to give people ways to achieve this framed within the context of my character’s personal experience, even a monk, one at the heart of a traditional religion’s institution.”
Here’s another thought…
Yogananda once wrote that it is good to be a “smile millionaire.” He said it well. Try it.
