F. Paul Wilson

Infobox Writer
name = F. Paul Wilson


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caption = F. Paul Wilson at a book signing in 2007
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birthname = Francis Paul Wilson
birthdate = birth date|1946|05|17
birthplace = Jersey City, New Jersey, United States flagicon|US
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period = 1976-present
genre = Science fiction, horror
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influences = John W. Campbell
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awards = awd|Prometheus Award|1979|Wheels Within Wheels |
awd|Prometheus Award|2004|Sims|


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Francis Paul Wilson (b. May 17, 1946 in Jersey City) is an American author, primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was "Healer" (1976). Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to "Analog" while still in medical school (graduating in 1973), and continued to write science fiction throughout the seventies. In 1981 he ventured into the horror genre with the international bestseller, "The Keep", and helped define the field throughout the rest of the decade. In the 1990s he became a true genre hopper, moving from science fiction to horror to medical thrillers and branching into interactive scripting for Disney Interactive and other multimedia companies. He, along with Matthew J. Costello, created and scripted "FTL Newsfeed" which ran daily on the Sci-Fi Channel from 1992-1996.

Among Wilson's best-known characters is the anti-hero Repairman Jack, an urban mercenary introduced in the 1984 New York Times bestseller, "The Tomb". Unwilling to start a series character at the time, Wilson refused to write a second Repairman Jack novel until "Legacies" in 1998. Since then he has written one per year along with side trips into vampire fiction (the retro "Midnight Mass"), science fiction ("Sims"), and even a New Age thriller ("The Fifth Harmonic").

Throughout his writing – especially in his earlier science fiction works (most notably "An Enemy of the State") – Wilson has included explicitly libertarian political philosophy which extends to his "Repairman Jack" series. He won the first Prometheus Award in 1979 for his novel "Wheels Within Wheels" and another in 2004 for "Sims". The Libertarian Futurist Society has also honored Wilson with their Hall of Fame Award for "Healer" (in 1990) and "An Enemy of the State" (in 1991).

Wilson is a noted fan of H. P. Lovecraft.cn|date=December 2007

Like most American science fiction writers directly or indirectly influenced by Campbell's view of the genre as a literature of ideas [http://www.andrew-may.com/asf/quotes.htm] , Wilson makes use of his work to speculatively explore trends and technologies as they manifest. A prominent example is his novel "An Enemy of the State" (published in 1980), which was written during the 1970s, an era that saw stagflation develop in the U.S. economy. In that period, inflation in the United States reached its highest level since World War II, due to the issue of fiat money by the Federal Reserve. In Wilson's novel, he extends the "squeeze" of confiscatory taxation and currency debauchment to a conclusion involving a Weimar Republic-style hyperinflation that brings down a galactic empire – and from which humanity's only hope of rescue arrives in the form of an anarchist conspiracy to complete the Empire's downfall and replace that government's "official counterfeit" with honest money. Throughout the book, Wilson runs chapter headings quoting from economic works such as "Fiat Money Inflation in France" [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=6949] .

"The Keep" was later made into a movie and there is much talk of a Repairman Jack film based on one of Wilson's novels. [http://www.wotmania.com/fantasymessageboardshowmessage.asp?MessageID=45889]

"Hate to say it (being a devout believer in Murphy’s law), but The Tomb looks like it’s on its way to being filmed this year. Last October, after seven years of development, numerous options, five screenwriters, and eight scripts, Beacon Films ("Air Force One," "Thirteen Days," "Spy Game," etc) finally bought film rights. Disney/Touchstone/Buena Vista will be partnering and distributing the film here and abroad.The film will be called "Repairman Jack" (the idea is to make him a franchise character)."

His short stories "Foet," "Traps" and "Lipidleggin" were filmed as short films and collected on the DVD "OTHERS: The Tales of F. Paul Wilson."

His short story "Pelts" was made into an episode of Masters of Horror.

Novels

The Adversary Cycle

*"The Keep" (1981), ISBN 0-688-00626-4
*"The Tomb" (1984), ISBN 0-918372-11-9 (re-released in 2004 under its original title, "Rakoshi", by Borderlands Press)
*"The Touch" (1986), ISBN 0-515-08733-5
*"Reborn" (1990), ISBN 0-913165-52-2
*"Reprisal" (1991), ISBN 0-913165-59-X
*"Nightworld" (1992), ISBN 0-913165-71-9

Repairman Jack

#"The Tomb" (1984), ISBN 0-918372-11-9 (re-released in 2004 under its original title, "Rakoshi", by Borderlands Press)
#"A Day in the Life" (short story) (1989)
#"The Long Way Home" (short story) (1992)
#"Home Repairs" (short story) (1996) (later incorporated into "Conspiracies")
#"The Wringer" (short story) (1996)
#"The Last Rakosh" (1990) (later incorporated into All The Rage, then in 2006 as revised hardcover and paperback editions)
#"Legacies" (1998), ISBN 0-312-86414-0
#"Conspiracies" (1999), ISBN 0-312-86797-2
#"All The Rage" (2000), ISBN 0-312-86796-4
#"Hosts" (2001), ISBN 0-312-87866-4
#"The Haunted Air" (2002), ISBN 0-312-87868-0
#"Gateways" (2003), ISBN 0-7653-0690-5
#"Crisscross" (2004), ISBN 0-7653-0691-3
#"Infernal" (2005), ISBN 0-7653-1275-1
#"Harbingers" (2006), ISBN 0-7653-1276-X
#"Interlude at Duane's" (short story) (2006) (available exclusively in the James Patterson-edited anthology "Thriller")
#"Bloodline" (2007), ISBN 0-7653-1706-0
#"Do-Gooder" (short short) (2007) (a 200-copy limited one-sheet "short short")
#"By The Sword" (2008)

Young Repairman Jack

#"Secret Histories" (young adult novel) (2008)
#"Secret Vengeance" (young adult novel) (2009)
#"Secret Circles" (young adult novel) (2009)

LaNague Federation

#"An Enemy of the State" (1980), ISBN 0-385-15422-4 (reprinted in 2005, includes "Lipidleggin'" and "Ratman" ISBN 0-9766544-2-3)
#"Wheels Within Wheels" (1978), ISBN 0-385-14397-4 (revised/reprinted in 2005, includes "Higher Centers" and "The Man with the Anteater" ISBN 0-9766544-3-1)
#"Healer" (1976), ISBN 0-385-11548-2 (reprinted in 2005, includes "To Fill the Sea and Air" ISBN 0-9766544-1-5)
*"Dydeetown World" (1989), ISBN 0-671-69828-1
*"The Tery" (1990), ISBN 0-671-69855-9 (revised in 2006, ISBN 1-892950-32-4)
*"LaNague Chronicles" (1992), ISBN 0-671-72139-9 (includes "An Enemy of the State", "Wheels Within Wheels" and "Healer")

Other Books

*"Black Wind" (1988), ISBN 0-312-93064-X
*"Soft and Others" (1989), ISBN 0-312-93117-4 (short story collection)
*"Sibs" (1991), ISBN 0812531248
*"Freak Show" (1992), ISBN 0-671-69574-6 (contributor and editor)
*"The Select" (1994), ISBN 0-688-04618-5
*"Implant" (1995), ISBN 0-312-89034-6
*"Virgin" (1996), ISBN 0-425-15124-7 (as Mary Elizabeth Murphy)
*"Mirage" (1996), ISBN 0-446-51976-6 (with Matthew J. Costello)
*"Deep as the Marrow" (1997), ISBN 0-312-86264-4
*"Nightkill" (1997), ISBN 0-312-85910-4 (with Steven Spruill) (some editions show "Steve Lyon")
*"Masque" (1998), ISBN 0-446-51977-4 (with Matthew J. Costello)
*"The Barrens and Others" (1998), ISBN 0-312-86416-7 (short story collection)
*"The Christmas Thingy" (2004), ISBN 1-58767-031-3 (children's story illustrated by Alan M. Clark)
*"The Fifth Harmonic" (2003), ISBN 1-57174-386-3
*"Sims" (2003), ISBN 0-7653-0551-8
*"Artifact" (2003), ISBN 0-7653-0063-X (with Kevin J. Anderson, Janet Berlinger and Matthew J. Costello)
*"Midnight Mass" (2004), ISBN 0-7653-0705-7
*"The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium" (2007)
*"Aftershock and Others" (2009), (short story collection)

External links

* [http://www.repairmanjack.com Official Repairman Jack site]
* [http://webpages.charter.net/mjturman/fpwfaq/index.htm Unofficial F. Paul Wilson FAQ]
* [http://us.macmillan.com/author/fpaulwilson F. Paul Wilson] at Tor Books
*
* [http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/books/related/wilson/index.htm "Black Wind" (1988)] - book review

Interviews

* [http://www.freetalklive.com/files/wilson.mp3 Interview with Free Talk Live]
* [http://www.wotmania.com/fantasymessageboardshowmessage.asp?MessageID=45889 Interview on wotmania.com]

Film version of "The Keep"

* [http://www.the-keep.ath.cx/default_en.htm "The Keep"] - Includes interviews with F. Paul Wilson, Michael Mann and Enki Bilal, creator of the visual given to "Molasar," the film version of The Keep's villain.
* [http://thekeep.0catch.com/ "The alternative endings" ] of the movie.
* [http://www.ghosts.org/rj/keep.html "A comical"] parody page about the movie adaptation of "The Keep"