John Gregory Betancourt

Infobox Artist


name = John Gregory Betancourt
birthdate = October 25, 1963
location = Missouri, USA
nationality = United States
field = author, publisher
education = Temple University, Philadelphia PA

John Gregory Betancourt (b. October 25, 1963 in Missouri) is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels as well as short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at "Amazing Stories" and editor of "Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field", the revived "Weird Tales" magazine, the first issue of "H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror" (which he subsequently hired Marvin Kaye to edit), "Cat Tales" magazine (which he subsequently hired George H. Scithers to edit), and "Adventure Tales" magazine. He is the writer of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series, as well as a dozen original novels. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as "Writer's Digest", "The Washington Post", and "Amazing Stories".

Childhood

Betancourt's father is archaeologist Philip P. Betancourt. John Betancourt spent his childhood summers in remote parts of Greece, especially Crete, where his father worked on the excavation at Pseira. There, in his early years, he developed a love for reading and discovered such diverse writers as Clark Ashton Smith, Michael Moorcock, and Jack Vance through books imported from the United Kingdom. When he ran out of books to read, he began making up his own stories to entertain himself.

First published work

His first published work was a poem, "The Argia," in "Space & Time" magazine at age 15. At age 16, he made his first professional sale, "Vernon's Dragon," to the anthology "100 Great Fantasy Short-Short Stories", edited by Isaac Asimov, John F. Carr, and Martin H. Greenberg. He began his first-published novel, "The Blind Archer", at age 17, finished it at age 18, and sold it to Avon Books at age 19.

Betancourt has alternated between writing and editing throughout his career. In college, he worked for "Amazing Stories" as an assistant editor. When the Philadelphia office shut down, he co-founded a literary agency with George Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer. A year later, Betancourt, Scithers, and Schweitzer licensed the name "Weird Tales" from Weird Tales, Ltd. and revived the magazine.

In 1989, Betancourt married Kim Hermo -- married name Kim Betancourt -- and moved from Philadelphia to Newark, New Jersey. They founded Wildside Press in 1989 to publish a collection of essays by Fritz Leiber designed to commemorate Leiber's appearance as Principle Speaker at Philcon that year. The book, "Fafhrd & Me" sold out quickly, and Betancourt decided to publish additional titles as a hobby.

Betancourt was named science fiction editor for Byron Preiss Visual Publications in 1990. He worked for Byron Preiss for 7 years, rising to Senior Editor, before leaving to write full-time and take care of his and Kim Betancourt's first child. This marked the beginning of his most prolific period as an author.

Betancourt also continued to publish books through Wildside Press during this period, using local short-run printers and Pulphouse Publishing to print new titles. Some of the limited editions, particularly titles by Mike Resnick, are impressive efforts. The limited editions of Resnick's "Lucifer Jones" series are bound in such exotic materials as Spanish cork, French leopard-patterned cloth, and leather. The limited editions he published of Bradley Denton's two short story collections are bound in Spanish snakeskin-patterned cloth and elephant-hide paper. The lettered editions have mahogany slipcases. The Denton collections won a World Fantasy Award for Best Collection of the Year.

Print on demand

In 1998, Betancourt discovered print on demand technology, which produces one book at a time. He became a pioneer in the field, bringing hundreds (eventually thousands) of books into print through PoD. Betancourt incorporated Wildside Press in 2004 and continued to expand the company, as gross annual sales continued to grow. As of May, 2008, Wildside Press had more than 4,500 books in print, ranging from classic literature to genre titles by H. Beam Piper, John W. Campbell, Jr., Andre Norton, and too many others to count.

Wildside Press took up an increasing amount of his time, though Betancourt still managed to produce one novel and several short stories most years. He brought in genre writers and editors to work on Wildside Press projects. Employees in the 2000-2007 period included such authors and editors as P.D. Cacek, Darrell Schweitzer, George H. Scithers, Vera Nazarian, Stephen H. Segal, and Sean Wallace.

In 2006, Betancourt partnered with AudioRealms to release new and classic science fiction, fantasy, and horror in Audiobook format. Initial releases included H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy and Andre Norton's The Time Traders, as well as works by Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft.

At the same time, Betancourt created a new mass-market paperback line, Cosmos Books, with Dorchester Publishing.

In 2007, Betancourt received the Black Orchid Novella Award from the Nero Wolfe Society (the "Wolfe Pack") and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine for his novella "Horse Pit." The award, which consisted of a certificate, a prize of $1,000.00, and publication in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, was presented at the Wolfe Pack's annual Black Orchid Banquet on December 1, 2007.

John Gregory Betancourt currently lives in Maryland with his wife, Kim and two sons, Ian and David.

Bibliography

Novels

*1987 "Starskimmer"
*1987 "Rogue Pirate"
*1988 "Johnny Zed"
*1988 "The Blind Archer"
*1990 "Rememory"
*1995 "Devil in the Sky" ("") with "Greg Cox"
*1995 "Incident at Arbuk" ("")
*1995 "Born of Elven Blood" with "Kevin J. Anderson"
*1995" "Infection" ("")
*1995" "Cutthroat Island"
*1996 ""
*1996 "The Heart of the Warrior" ("")
*1997" "The Wrath of Poseidon"
*1997" "The Vengeance of Hera"
*"2001" "The Gates of Hades"
*"2002" "Pacifica" with "Linda E. Bushyager"
*"2003" "The Dawn of Amber" (#1 in the Amber prequel series)
*"2003" "The Dragon Sorcerer"
*"2004" "Chaos and Amber" (#2 in the Amber prequel series)
*"2004" "To Rule in Amber" (#3 in the Amber prequel series)
*"2005" "Shadows of Amber" (#4 in the Amber prequel series)
* unpublished "Sword of Chaos" (#5 in the Amber prequel series)

hort Story Collections

*"1991" "Slab's Tavern and Other Uncanny Places"
*"1992" "Performance Art"
*"2005" "Playing in Wonderland"

Young Adult Series

*"Dr. Bones"
**"1989" #4 "The Dragons of Komako"
*"Robert Silverberg's Time Tours"
**"1991" #4 "The Dinosaur Trackers" as "Thomas Shadwell" with "Arthur Byron Cover" and "Timothy Robert Sullivan"
**"1991" #6 "Caesar's Time Legions" as "Jeremy Kingston"
*"The New Adventures of Superman"
**"1996" #2 "Exile" as "M.J. Friedman" with "Michael Jan Friedman"

Magazines Edited

*"Amazing Stories" as Assistant Editor to "George H. Scithers"
*"Weird Tales" with "George H. Scithers" and "Darrell Schweitzer"
*"Adventure Tales"
*"Cat Tales"

Anthologies

*"1991" "The Ultimate Dracula" with "Byron Preiss" (uncredited)
*"1991" "The Ultimate Frankenstein" with "Byron Preiss"
*"1991" "The Ultimate Werewolf" with "Byron Preiss"
*"1993" "Swashbuckling Editor Stories"
*"1993" "The Ultimate Witch" with "Byron Preiss"
*"1993" "The Ultimate Zombie" with "Byron Preiss"
*"1995" "The Ultimate Alien" with "Byron Preiss"
*"1995" ""
*"1996" "New Masterpieces of Horror"
*"1997" ""
*"2005" ""
*"2006" "" with "Sean Wallace"
*"2007" "" with "Sean Wallace"

Non-Fiction

*"1996" "Serve It Forth - Cooking with Anne McCaffrey" with "Anne McCaffrey"
*"1996" "The Sci-Fi Channel Trivia Book"
*"1998" "The Sci-Fi Channel Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction" with "Roger Fulton"

There are many other writings that still need to be added

External links

* [http://www.wildsidebooks.com/jgb.htm John Betancourt's bibliography] at Wildside Press
* [http://www.sfsite.com/10b/jb138.htm An interview with John Betancourt] at sfsite.com