Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/29/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 01/12/08.
PAUL WITCOVER
The author's official website is: http://www.sff.net/people/stilskin/.
Books:
Dracula Asylum
Tumbling After
Waking Beauty
Comic:
Co Creator/Writer Anima (DC Comics)
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: January 13, 2007.
Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center.
Official Attendance: 14.
Meeting Program: Talk by Fantasy Writer.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2007 Philip J De Parto.
...
Mr Witcover is the author of three genre novels, WAKING BEAUTY, TUMBLING AFTER, and DRACULA: ASYLUM. He was the co-writer of the DC Comics series, ANIMA, and reviews books for REALMS OF FANTASY magazine and on-line publications. He has also written a non-genre biography.
The author was a big comic book fan growing up. He later discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, and J R R Tolkien. He knew that he wanted to be a writer at a young age. He began working on his first published book (there was also one that he considers to be unpublishable), WAKING BEAUTY, was begun while in graduate school. He describes the book as a feminist version of Sleeping Beauty and was inspired by the work of Gene Wolfe.
His second fantasy novel was TUMBLING AFTER. There are two plot threads in this book. The first concerns two children, a brother and a sister. The boy comes to believe that he can change reality, but is not sure exactly how he does it. The other plot is set in a sword and sorcery world, but with characters who are manipulated by dice rolls and other actions of the brother. Or perhaps this is all just happening in the child's mind. The author stated that he would bring dice with him to determine which pages he would select when he read from this work.
His most recent novel is DRACULA: ASYLUM. This is an authorized sequel to the original Universal movie, DRACULA, and is set during World War I. It features a mixture of old and new characters and is as much concerned with the horrors of trench warfare as it is with supernatural evil. Because this is a licensed property, he had to change his origin of Dracula. However, he did manage to leave his version in the book as a red herring.
Mr Witcover has interviewed such legends as Ray Bradbury and Arthur C Clarke. His book reviews are generally geared to promoting good books, but he will write a harsh review if the book is not simply a bad book, but a book which embodies a particular negative trend in contemporary publishing.
This lead to a lively discussion on the state of science fiction publishing and readership with Milind, John, Hans, and others in the audience offering input. Our thanks to everyone who assisted in making this such a good meeting.