Dan Wells (author)
Encyclopedia
Dan Wells is an American horror fiction
author
. A Utah
native, he currently resides in Orem, Utah
.
s, a serial and a series of comic books when he was in high school. He finished his first serious novel when he was 22. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University
, with a bachelor degree in English, emphasizing writing and editing.
, a horror novel published in the United States by Tor Books
. It has been released in the United Kingdom
, Australia
and Germany
, and will soon be published in Taiwan
.
He also is one of the four authors (including Brandon Sanderson
, Mary Robinette Kowal
and Howard Tayler
) that contribute to the podcast
Writing Excuses
.
described I Am Not a Serial Killer as a "dazzling, unputdownable debut" with a protagonist "as chilling as he is endearing." YA author Jack Heath praised it as having "plenty of thematic merit" in a review on his website. "All the characters are richly identifiable, including – and I can't stress enough how impressed I was by this – the serial killer
," Heath said. "Wells is a first-time novelist, and yet he's already created a sympathetic villain, the holy grail
of thriller writing."
In 2011, Wells was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. A Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
native, he currently resides in Orem, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
Early life
Wells wrote his first novel, Choose Your Own Adventure, when he was in second grade. He followed up with several novellaNovella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
s, a serial and a series of comic books when he was in high school. He finished his first serious novel when he was 22. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
, with a bachelor degree in English, emphasizing writing and editing.
Career
Wells is best known as the author of I Am Not a Serial KillerI Am Not a Serial Killer
I Am Not A Serial Killer is a 2009 young adult thriller novel written by Dan Wells. It is the first installment in the John Wayne Cleaver trilogy. Its sequel, Mr. Monster, was released in 2010 in the UK. The third installment, I Don't Want To Kill You, was released in January 2011 in the UK...
, a horror novel published in the United States by Tor Books
Tor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...
. It has been released in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and will soon be published in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
He also is one of the four authors (including Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson is an American fantasy author. A Nebraska native, he currently resides in American Fork, Utah. He earned his Master's degree in Creative Writing in 2005 from Brigham Young University, where he was on the staff of Leading Edge, a semi-professional speculative fiction magazine...
, Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal is an American author and puppeteer. She also served as art director for Shimmer Magazine and in 2010 was named art director for Weird Tales...
and Howard Tayler
Howard Tayler
Howard V. Tayler is the award-winning creator of the hugely successful webcomic Schlock Mercenary. He worked as a volunteer missionary for the LDS Church, then graduated from Brigham Young University...
) that contribute to the podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses is a fifteen minute long podcast hosted by authors Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal and web cartoonist Howard Tayler...
.
Critical reception
Horror writer F. Paul WilsonF. Paul Wilson
Francis Paul Wilson is an American author, primarily in the science fiction and horror genres. His debut novel was Healer . Wilson is also a part-time practicing family physician. He made his first sales in 1970 to Analog while still in medical school , and continued to write science fiction...
described I Am Not a Serial Killer as a "dazzling, unputdownable debut" with a protagonist "as chilling as he is endearing." YA author Jack Heath praised it as having "plenty of thematic merit" in a review on his website. "All the characters are richly identifiable, including – and I can't stress enough how impressed I was by this – the serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
," Heath said. "Wells is a first-time novelist, and yet he's already created a sympathetic villain, the holy grail
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...
of thriller writing."
In 2011, Wells was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
John Cleaver books
- I Am Not a Serial KillerI Am Not a Serial KillerI Am Not A Serial Killer is a 2009 young adult thriller novel written by Dan Wells. It is the first installment in the John Wayne Cleaver trilogy. Its sequel, Mr. Monster, was released in 2010 in the UK. The third installment, I Don't Want To Kill You, was released in January 2011 in the UK...
(2009) - Mr. Monster (2010)
- I Don't Want To Kill You (2011)
Stand-alone novels
- A Night of Blacker Darkness (2011), written as Frederick Whithers (author) and Cecil G. Bagsworth III (editor)
- The Hollow City (Forthcoming July 2012)
- Partials (Forthcoming February 2012)
Short stories
- "The Amazing Adventures of George" (2000) in Leading EdgeLeading EdgeLeading Edge, formerly The Leading Edge Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, is a semi-professional speculative fiction magazine founded in 1981 and published at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The magazine is known for its high quality fiction and has published stories by authors such...
#40 - "The Mountain of the Lord" (forthcoming, 2011) in Monsters and Mormons (Peculiar Pages)