John Betancourt

John Gregory Betancourt (born October 25, 1963) is an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels, as well as short stories. He is also known as the founder and publisher, with his wife Kim Betancourt, of Wildside Press in 1989. In 1998, they entered the print on demand (PoD) market and greatly expanded their production. In addition to publishing new novels and short stories, they have undertaken projects to publish new editions of collections of stories that appeared in historic magazines.

Prior to establishing the new business, Betancourt 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 worked as a senior editor for Byron Preiss Visual Publications (1989–1996) and iBooks.

Betancourt wrote 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''.

Early life

Betancourt's father is Felipe Pablo "Philip" Betancourt, an archeologist. His brother Michael Betancourt became a critical theorist.

When he was a child, the Betancourt family spent summers in Greece, especially Crete, where his father worked on the excavation at Kommos in the 1970s, and Pseira in the 1980s. There the younger Betancourt 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. He said of this time, "When I ran out of stories, I made up my own to keep myself entertained. I can trace the impulse to become a writer to age fourteen, when I spent most of a summer writing sequels to classics like ''Treasure Island''."

Betancourt's 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 ''The Blind Archer'', at age 17, finished it at age 18, and sold it to Avon Books as his debut novel at age 19. He graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts.

Career

Betancourt has alternated between writing and editing throughout his career. He worked for ''Amazing Stories'' as an assistant editor from 1985 to 1987. 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. Betancourt worked as an editor there until 1990.

Betancourt married Kim Betancourt (née Hermo) in 1990, and they moved from Philadelphia to Newark, New Jersey in 1989 to publish a collection of essays by Fritz Leiber designed to commemorate Leiber's appearance as Principal 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