F. Paul Wilson

F. Paul Wilson
Wilson in 2007
Born	Francis Paul Wilson (1946-05-17) May 17, 1946 Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Period	1976–present
Genre	Science fiction, horror
Notable awards	Prometheus Award 1979 Wheels Within Wheels Prometheus Award 2004 Sims Prometheus Hall of Fame Award 2004 Lipidleggin' Inkpot Award 2007

Francis Paul Wilson (born May 17, 1946, in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American medical doctor and author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and other genres of literary fiction. His books include the Repairman Jack novels—including Ground Zero, The Tomb, and Fatal Error—the Adversary cycle—including The Keep—and a young adult series featuring the teenage Jack. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award from the San Diego ComiCon, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers of America, among other honors. He lives in Wall, New Jersey.

Career

Wilson 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. His debut novel was Healer (1976). In 1981, he ventured into the horror genre with the international bestseller The Keep, which was adapted into a film in 1983. In the 1990s, he moved from science fiction and horror to medical thrillers and 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 to 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). Current book sales are around six million.

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). In 2015 he received the third special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement; the previous two recipients were Poul Anderson and Vernor Vinge. In 2021, his "Lipidleggin'" won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.

Wilson is a noted fan of H. P. Lovecraft.

Why? Because HPL is special to me.
Donald A. Wollheim is to blame. He started me on Lovecraft. It was 1959. I was just a kid, a mere thirteen years old when he slipped me my first fix. I was a good kid up till then, reading Ace Doubles and clean, wholesome science fiction stories by the likes of Heinlein, E. E. Smith, Poul Anderson, Fred Pohl, and the rest. But he brought me down with one anthology. He knew what he was doing. He called it The Macabre Reader and slapped this lurid neato cool Ed Emshwiller cover on it. I couldn't resist. I bought it. I read it. And that was it. The beginning of my end.

In answer to a claim that Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was an influence on The Keep, Wilson responded:

First off, I'm not a fan of LOtR – I struggled through it once as a teen (skimming a lot) and never looked back. ... The influences on The Keep were Ludlum, R. E. Howard, and Lovecraft.

Like other American science fiction writers directly or indirectly influenced by Campbell's view of the genre as a literature of ideas, Wilson makes use of his work to explore trends and technologies speculatively 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. Throughout the book, Wilson runs chapter headings quoting from economic works such as Fiat Money Inflation in France and KYFHO, a kind of anarchic philosophy that he invented as model for a perfect society. The protagonist La Nague was born on Tolive, where the philosophy led to a government described in detail in "The Healer".

The Keep was later made into a movie. Wilson said in 2003 that there was talk of a film based on a Repairman Jack novel.

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).

No Repairman Jack movie was made.

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 adapted into the season 2 episode of Masters of Horror titled "Pelts".

Short stories "Definitive Therapy" (published in The Further Adventures of The Joker) and "Hunters" (published in Soft and Others) were adapted as short films.

In January 2012, Wilson began writing for the tech website Byte, mostly in the persona of Repairman Jack.

Wilson has been a resident of Wall Township, New Jersey. He is a practicing physician as a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine.

Bibliography

The Adversary Cycle

Main article: The Adversary Cycle

• The Keep (1981), ISBN 0-688-00626-4
• The Tomb (1984), ISBN 0-425-07295-9 (re-released in 2004 under its original title, Rakoshi, by Borderlands Press)
• The Touch (1986), ISBN 0-399-13144-2
• Reborn (1990), ISBN 0-913165-52-2 (revised edition in 2009)
• Reprisal (1991), ISBN 0-913165-59-X (revised edition in 2011)
• Nightworld (1992), ISBN 0-450-53665-3 (revised edition in 2012)
• Signalz (2020) (a prelude to Nightworld)

Repairman Jack

Main article: Repairman Jack

1. "Fix" (novella) (with J.A. Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson)
2. The Tomb (1984), ISBN 0-425-07295-9 (re-released in 2004 under its original title, Rakoshi, by Borderlands Press)
3. "A Day in the Life" (short story) (1989) (available in The Barrens and Others and Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack)
4. "The Last Rakosh" (1990) (later incorporated into All The Rage, then in 2006 as revised hardcover and paperback editions; also available in Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack)
5. "The Long Way Home" (short story; available in Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack) (1992)
6. "Home Repairs" (short story) (1996) (later incorporated into Conspiracies; also available in Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack)
7. "The Wringer" (short story) (1996) (later incorporated into Fatal Error; also available in Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack)
8. Legacies (1998), ISBN 0-7472-1703-3
9. Conspiracies (1999), ISBN 0-312-86797-2
10. All The Rage (2000), ISBN 0-312-86796-4
11. Hosts (2001), ISBN 0-312-87866-4
12. The Haunted Air (2002), ISBN 0-312-87868-0
13. Gateways (2003), ISBN 0-7653-0690-5
14. Crisscross (2004), ISBN 0-7653-0691-3
15. Infernal (2005), ISBN 0-7653-1275-1
16. Harbingers (2006), ISBN 0-7653-1276-X
17. "Interlude at Duane's" (short story) (2006) (available in the James Patterson–edited anthology Thriller, Aftershock and Others, and in Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack)
18. "Infernal Night" (short story) (with Heather Graham) (available in FaceOff, and also independently published)
19. Bloodline (2007), ISBN 0-7653-1706-0
20. "Do-Gooder" (short short) (2007) (a 200-copy limited one-sheet "short short"; available in Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack)
21. By The Sword (2008), ISBN 0-7653-1707-9
22. Ground Zero (2009), ISBN 978-0-7653-2281-4
23. "Recalled" (short story) (2009) (available in Richard Matheson tribute book He is Legend as a crossover with Matheson's "The Distributor"; also available in Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack)
24. Fatal Error (2010), ISBN 978-1-934267-18-9
25. The Dark at the End (2011), ISBN 978-0-7653-2283-8
26. Quick Fixes- Tales of Repairman Jack (contains "A Day in the Life", "The Last Rakosh", "Home Repairs", "The Long Way Home", "The Wringer", "Interlude at Duane's", "Do-Gooder", "Recalled", "and "Piney Power") (2011), ISBN 978-1-4611-9074-5
27. The heavily revised (2012) version of Nightworld is styled as "a Repairman Jack novel" and marks the end of the RJ and Adversary cycles.
28. "Santa Jack: (short story) (2013) (excerpted from Legacies)
29. The Last Christmas (2019, an interlude that takes place between Ground Zero and Fatal Error

Young Repairman Jack

1. Secret Histories (young adult novel) (2008)
2. Secret Circles (young adult novel) (2010)
3. Secret Vengeance (young adult novel) (2011)

Early Repairman Jack

1. Cold City (2012)
2. Dark City (2013)
3. Fear City (2014)

LaNague Federation

1. Healer (1976), ISBN 0-385-11548-2 (reprinted in 2005, includes "To Fill the Sea and Air" ISBN 0-9766544-1-5)
2. 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)
3. An Enemy of the State (1980), ISBN 0-385-15422-4 (reprinted in 2005, includes "Lipidleggin'" and "Ratman" ISBN 0-9766544-2-3)
4. Dydeetown World (1989), ISBN 0-671-69828-1
5. The Tery (1990), ISBN 0-671-69855-9 (revised in 2006, ISBN 1-892950-32-4)

• The LaNague Chronicles (1992), ISBN 0-671-72139-9 (includes An Enemy of the State, Wheels Within Wheels and Healer)
• The Complete LaNague (2013) (includes "Lipidleggin’", An Enemy of the State, Dydeetown World, The Tery, "To Fill the Sea and Air", "The Man with the Anteater", "Higher Centers", Wheels Within Wheels, "Ratman", and Healer)

Nocturnia Chronicles

1. Definitely Not Kansas (2015) (with Thomas F. Monteleone)
2. Family Secrets (2016) (with Thomas F. Monteleone)
3. The Silent Ones (2018) (with Thomas F. Monteleone)

The ICE Sequence

1. Panacea (2016)
2. The God Gene (2018)
3. The Void Protocol (2019)

Other Novels

• Black Wind (1988)
• Sibs (1991) (U.S.) / Sister Night (1993) (U.K.)
• Select (aka The Foundation) (1993)
• Implant (1995) (writing as Colin Andrews)
• Virgin (1996) (writing as Mary Elizabeth Murphy)
• Mirage (1996) (with Matthew J. Costello)
• Deep as the Marrow (1997) (writing as Colin Andrews)
• Nightkill (1997) (with Steven Spruill) (some editions show "Steve Lyon")
• Masque (1998) (with Matthew J. Costello) (note: ebook release has been retitled DNA Wars)
• The Fifth Harmonic (2003)
• Artifact (2003) (with Kevin J. Anderson, Janet Berlinger and Matthew J. Costello)
• Midnight Mass (2004)
• The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium (2007) (an expansion to his short fiction version in the FPW-edited anthology Freak Show)
• The Proteus Cure (2013) (with Tracy L. Carbone)
• A Necessary End (2014) (with Sarah Pinborough)
• Duad Series
  • Double Threat (2021)
  • Double Dose (2022)
• Rx series (writing as Nina Abbott)
  • Rx Murder (2021)
  • Rx Mayhem (2022)
• The Hidden series
  • The Upwelling (2024)
  • Lexie (2024)

Short Story Collections

• Soft and Others (1989)
• Ad Statum Perspicuum (1990)
• The Barrens and Others (1998)
• Sims (2003)
• A Little Beige Book of Non-Descript Stories (2004)
• Aftershock & Others (2009)
• Secret Stories: Tales from the Secret History (2019)
• Other Sandboxes (2024)

Uncollected Short Fiction

• Nyro Fiddles (1992)
• The Lord's Work (1992)
• Winter Quarters (1992)
• The Pine Barrens, NJ (1992)
• Good Friday (1999)
• Feral (2003)
• Sermon (2004) (with John B. Ford)
• The Tapeworm Letters (2004)
• Riding the R (2007)
• The Sound of Blunder (2008)
• Wayward Pines: The Widow Lindley (2013)
• The Dead World (2013)
• Renascence (2014) (with Rhodi Hawk)
• Astraphobia (2015)
• The Adventure of the Abu Qir Sapphire (2018)
• The Compendium of Srem (2018)
• The Long and the Short of It (2018)
• Wardenclyffe (2018)
• To the Lonely Sea and the Sky (2020)
• The Last Bonneville (2023)

Anthologies

• Freak Show (1992)
• Diagnosis: Terminal (1996)

Awards

Among his many awards, Wilson is a multiple Prometheus Award "Hall of Fame" award winner.

Work	Year & Award	Category	Result	Ref.
Wheels Within Wheels	1979 Prometheus Award	Novel	Won
Green Winter	1981 Analog Award	Short Story	Won
The Keep	1982 Balrog Awards	Novel	Nominated
	1982 Locus Award	Fantasy Novel	Nominated
An Enemy of the State	1982 Prometheus Award	Novel	Nominated
	1991 Prometheus Award	Hall of Fame Award	Won
The Tomb	1985 Prometheus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
Dydeetown Girl	1987 Locus Award	Novella	Nominated
	1987 Nebula Award	Novella	Nominated
Day-Tay-Vao	1987 Bram Stoker Award	Short Fiction	Nominated
Traps	1987 Bram Stoker Award	Short Fiction	Nominated
Black Wind	1988 Bram Stoker Award	Novel	Nominated
Wires	1989 Locus Award	Novella	Nominated
Soft and Others	1989 Bram Stoker Award	Fiction Collection	Nominated
Pelts	1990 Bram Stoker Award	Long Fiction	Nominated
Healer	1990 Prometheus Award	Hall of Fame Award	Won
The Barrens	1991 World Fantasy Award	Novella	Nominated
The Tery	1992 Prometheus Award	Novel	Nominated
Freak Show	1993 World Fantasy Award	Anthology	Nominated
Masque	1999 Prometheus Award	SF Novel	Nominated
After Shock	1999 Bram Stoker Award	Short Fiction	Won
Dydeetown World	1999 Seiun Award	Translated Long Work	Nominated
The Christmas Thingy	2000 Bram Stoker Award	Work for Young Readers	Nominated
Hosts	2002 Prometheus Award	Novel	Nominated
The Haunted Air	2003 Prometheus Award	Novel	Nominated
Sims	2004 Prometheus Award	Novel	Won
Harbringers	2007 Prometheus Award	Novel	Nominated
A Necessary End	2013 Bram Stoker Award	Novel	Nominated
Lipidleggin	2021 Prometheus Award	Hall of Fame Award	Won
Double Dose	2024 Dragon Awards	Horror Novel	Nominated
	1999 Inkpot Award		Won
	2005 World Horror Convention Grand Master Award		Won
	2007 Inkpot Award		Won
	2009 Bram Stoker Award	Lifetime Achievement	Won
	2015 Prometheus Award	Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement	Won

External links

• Official Repairman Jack site
• "Unofficial F. Paul Wilson FAQ". Archived from the original on December 8, 2006. Retrieved December 12, 2005.
• F. Paul Wilson at Tor Books
• F. Paul Wilson at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• A fan-created wiki

Interviews

• Interview with Free Talk Live Archived February 17, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
• Interview on wotmania.com
• Interview at World Horror Convention 2011
• Interview with Rodger Nichols (2018) The God Gene

Film version of The Keep

• 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.
• The alternative endings Archived December 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine of the movie
• A comical Archived September 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine—Parody page about the movie adaptation of The Keep