Meet S. P. Cloward
Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, I’ve spent the past 23 years living in various places including Texas, Illinois, and currently Florida. My childhood passion for theme parks began to grow at an early age as I recognized their ability to provide an environment where every human emotion can be evoked and worldly concerns can be temporarily set aside. After receiving a bachelor degree in Career and Organizational Studies from Eastern Illinois University, I settled in Orlando, Florida where themed worlds and theme parks abound.
My goal is to bring this same enthusiasm for themed worlds to my love of storytelling, and as you begin to read AfterLife, it won’t be long until you feel the excitement and originality of the story. This series creates an imaginary world within a story that mirrors the carefully crafted world within a theme park. Enjoy the ride.
For more details, continue scrolling! Life can be great. Let me show you how.
Early Years & Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City in the late 1980s and 1990s was an interesting place to grow up.
First, I grew up across the street from the Salt Lake City Cemetery. These expansive grounds were a playground for me and many other kids in the area. My childhood best friend Greg and I spent hours creating imaginary fantasy worlds that lived on the rolling hills of the cemetery. This is the same cemetery where many scenes from the television show Touched By an Angel were filmed.
Additionally, due to the Mormon church, the city receives visitors and is home to people from all over the world. I was fortunate to be exposed to many different cultures and world views. I didn’t realize how valuable this exposure would be until we moved from Utah and I discovered many other cities aren’t as fortunate to have such a diverse residency of people.
Also, Salt Lake City is home to an impressive fine arts scene. With live theatre, choir performances, art shows, independent film festivals, and other cultural events so prevalent in my early years, it’s no wonder I’m drawn to the stories people tell and the mediums they use to tell them.
Finally, Utah has epic landscapes. The American West was an incredible place to grow up. Camping and hiking were regular activities in our family when we were young. This and our trips to Disneyland every few years. These adventures into the mountains and deserts are often in my mind when I write my stories.
Young Sam enjoying some classic TV through his cool sunglasses.
Young Sam exploring Yellowstone National Park
Formative Years
When I was a teenager we moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. It was this move that started me down the path that I’m currently on and helped me become the storyteller I am today. The epic landscapes of Utah gave way to the flat rolling plains of Texas, the beach, and the heat. It was in Texas where my love of theme parks continued to grow, creating the design of my own park, along with a park map, ride descriptions, and even a plan on how to operate it. At the time, I knew nothing of theme parks but I’ve discovered that my original design, although created by a much younger version of myself, was actually pretty sound.
It was also in Texas where I continued to develop my love of the arts, writing, and the stories humans tell. I was active at a local regional theatre where I had the pleasure to work along some incredible people on countless productions, both performing or acting in technical roles. At school, I wrote for the school newspaper, participated in theatre, and was our Junior and Senior class president. I don’t know how that happened, to be honest.
After high school graduation I moved to Florida and started working full-time at Walt Disney World. You should have been there at the beginning of my senior year when I told my guidance counselor that was my plan. She told me it wasn’t a very good one.
Homecoming Dance - 2001
Sophomore Class Picture - 1999
Early Career & Education
I am going to gloss over a lot here since this era in my life was quite eventful, as it is for most people. Working at Disney, I had the chance to learn several lines of business from crowd control during parades, to performing in those parades, to driving floats in those parades, to coordinating those parades. I worked at Space Mountain, Rock-N’-Rollercoaster, the Magic Kingdom Trains, and even at the call center. I worked at the resorts in concierge and at the front desk. I lived for a year on the Disney Magic as the Character Manager. I conducted backstage educational tours for school groups through the Disney Youth Education Series (YES) program.
While I was working, I was also taking classes at Valencia College where I eventually had half a degree under my belt. I decided I needed to refocus on my education and complete my degree, so I took a break and moved up to Illinois for close to two years to finish my education. While in Illinois I worked at a department store, and for a time, was a DJ for weddings working for a company out of St. Louis. I couldn’t wait to get back to Orlando, the place that still feels like home to me. I left Illinois with a degree in Career and Organizational Studies, strengthened ambitions, and new energy.
In the following years, I worked at the Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando on their Entertainment team, I worked at SeaWorld at the open water habitats spieling information about aquatic animals, and I wrote my first book - AfterLife.
The Recent Past to Now
While writing my second book, AfterLife Allegiances, I was also working at the Universal Orlando Resort in their Entertainment department as a Stage Manager. Again, I found myself surrounded by amazing stories, fascinating people, and new ideas. It wasn’t the stories presented in the rides and shows that interested me most, although Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure provide top of the line attractions. It was the interactions with the people I worked with and the personal experiences outside of work during that time that left lasting impressions on me.
An amazing opportunity was then presented to me that took me from Universal Orlando. Over the next two-and-a-half years I oversaw retail, event, and festival operations as the Front of House General Manager of a winery in Florida. It was an adventure in itself and opened me up to new insights into the world of wine, which is also fascinating. I then took the leap to be an entrepreneur. Currently, my husband and I have started our own business with a focus on photography and in capturing the human experience on film.
Over the last few years, my focus on travel, my own creative works, and my personal relationships have helped me continue this amazing journey I’ve had thus far. The cultures of the world and the stories that have reverberated out of the human experience continue to speak to me. With each new experience, I gain a new lens through which to see the world and a new tool to add to my creativity belt.
Creatively, I’m currently focused on the stories of AfterLife, with the third installment on the way. My husband and I continue our explorations of the world, both locally in Orlando and internationally, and tell those stories through our YouTube channel Welcome to Sam José! The world is an amazing place, and I look forward to experiencing as much of it as I’m able to.
Also, José, the amazing man in my life is an ongoing inspiration to me. I could go on for hours about him here, but I’ll spare you for now.
