Leonard Paul Carpenter, born in 1948, is a technical writer and author of fantasy and science fiction. An account identifying Carpenter as a pseudonym of a supposed Bulgarian author named Plamen Mitrev, appears to be false.
Among Carpenter's works are eleven Conan novels published by Tor Books, which he claims "make him the most prolific contributor, living or dead, to the Conan literary saga of the late Robert E. Howard." He has also written the science fiction novel Fatal Strain, and a number of short stories, articles and poems.
Carpenter's work has been published in the magazines Amazing Stories, Asimov's Science Fiction, Eldrich Tales, and 2AM, as well as the anthologies Dark Lessons (1985), L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume I (1985), The Year's Best Horror Stories XIV (1986), Horrorstory Volume 5 (1989), The Year's Best Horror Stories: XVII (1989), Short Sharp Shocks (1990), The Cthulhu Cycle (1996), Serve It Forth ... Cooking With Anne McCaffrey (1996), L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XV (1999), and L. Ron Hubbard Presents the Best of Writers of the Future (2000).