F. Paul Wilson

Paul was born May 17, 1946, and raised in New Jersey where he misspent his youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed on the radio, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. (He'd sneak off on Saturday afternoons when he should have been cutting the lawn and catch double features at the Oritani Theatre, or stay up late with Zacherley on Shock Theatre; in one week he managed to see King Kong 11 times on Million Dollar Movie.)

Eventually, he learned to read, and even write. In 1968 he graduated Georgetown University but selflessly eschewed public life in order to give his classmate, Bill Clinton, a better chance in the political ring. He began selling short fiction while a first-year medical student and has been writing fiction and practicing medicine ever since. He sold a number of comic scripts to CREEPY and EERIE during the 1970s, but generally concentrated on prose fiction. His short stories and novelettes have appeared in all the major markets and numerous best-of-the-year collections; his novels have made the national bestseller lists.

He is the author of fifteen books: five science fiction novels (HEALER, WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS, AN ENEMY OF THE STATE, DYDEETOWN WORLD, THE TERY), six horror thrillers (THE KEEP, THE TOMB, REBORN, REPRISAL, NIGHTWORLD, SIBS), a supernatural medical thriller (THE TOUCH), an historical horror novel, BLACK WIND, and a straight contemporary medical thriller, THE SELECT. SOFT & OTHERS is a collection of short fiction from his first 20 years as a writer. He edited the HWA anthology, FREAK SHOW; his first three science fiction novels have been collected in an omnibus edition, THE LaNAGUE CHRONICLES by Baen Books.

THE KEEP and THE TOMB both appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books as best paperback original of 1984. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among otehrs. His novels and short fiction have appeared on the final ballots for the World Fantasy Award, the Nebula Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. He's also listed in Who's Who in America.

Over four million copies of his books are in print in the US; his work has been translated into fifteen foreign languages but he hasn't the faintest idea how many copies are floating around overseas.

Other Media: His novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but perfectly incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) by Paramount in 1983. It opened to deservedly horrendous reviews and died a mercifully quick death. The author takes no responsibility for the film. In 1989 his original teleplay "Glim-Glim" aired on Monsters. In collaboration with Matthew Costello since 1992, he has been writing and/or scripting the Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year). Also with Costello, their interactive script Bombmeister went into production in Hollywood on January 24, 1995. (Produced by Interfilm; theatrical release scheduled for August 1995.) Wilson and Costello have also contracted with Time Warner to write Mirage, a mystery in both novel and interactive CD-ROM format, to be published simultaneously by Warner Books and Time Warner Interactive in 1996.

And he's still married to his high school sweetheart. They live on the Jersey Shore with their two daughters and three cats, where he is working on a new novel, another novel/inter-active CD-ROM project for Time-Warner, gathering stories for a second collection, and consulting and scripting for cable tv's Sci-Fi Channel.

What a guy! February, 1995

Written by Someone at Sci-Fi Channel edited by KPC 8 February 1996 ©