Dennis William Etchison (March 30, 1943 – May 29, 2019) was an American writer and editor of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

and

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J ...

.Dennis Etchison (Obituary)
''

Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...

'' Magazine, May 29, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2020. Etchison referred to his own work as "rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world". Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison "one hell of a fiction writer" and he has been called "the most original living horror writer in America" ('' The Viking-Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural'').Mathew, David, "Arterial Motives: Dennis Etchison Interviewed". '' Interzone'' No. 133, July 1998 (p. 23-26). While he has achieved some acclaim as a novelist, it is Etchison's work in the short story format that is especially well-regarded by

critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...

and

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

fans, as with his debut collection ''The Dark Country'' (1982) selected as one of the 100 best horror books. He was President of the

Horror Writers Association The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a worldwide non-profit organization of professional writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting the interests of Horror and Dark fantasy writers. Overview HWA was formed in 1985 with t ...

from 1992 to 1994. He was a multi-award winner, having won the

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of S ...

three times for fiction, and the

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy literature, fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year a ...

for anthologies he edited.

Early years

Etchison was born in

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

. An only child, the earliest years of his life were spent growing up in a household devoid of men (World War II was still raging across the globe). Etchison has remarked that he was greatly spoiled during his early years and largely isolated from other children. This sense of isolation and need to interact with society would later form the themes to many of his works. In his early years, Etchison also became an avid wrestling fan. Fascinated by the interplay between good and evil, he would regularly attend shows at the Olympic Auditorium with his father. His passion for the sport continued to the end of his life, and he often wrote under the pen name "The Pro" for the wrestling publication ''Rampage''. In junior high and high school, Etchison wrote for the school paper and won numerous essay contests. He discovered

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and r ...

during this time and emulated him before developing his own style. On the last day of his junior year in high school, Etchison began writing his first short story. Entitled "Odd Boy Out," it involved a group of teenagers in the woods. He began submitting it to numerous science-fiction magazines but received rejection slips each time. He then remembered Ray Bradbury once suggesting that a writer should start by submitting their work to the least likely market. So he submitted his short story to a gentlemen's magazine called ''Escapade'', and, a few weeks later, he received their acceptance and a check for $125.

Film studies and screen work

Etchison has written professionally in many genres since 1960. He attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

film school in the 1960s and has written many screenplays as yet unproduced, from his own works as well as those of

("The Fox and the Forest") and

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

("The Mist"). He rewrote a

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

script, ''The Ogre'', and completed a screenplay based on his own short story "The Late Shift". He co-wrote a story for the Logan's Run TV series, "The Thunder Gods" (printed in ''The Circuit'' 2, No 3). In 1983, Etchison was asked by

to be the film consultant/historian on the paperback edition of King's 1981 book on the horror genre, ''

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...

''. In 1984, ZBS Media produced a 90-minute radio version of

's '' The Mist'', based on Etchison's script. A film, "Killing Time", was made by Patrick Aumont and Damian Harris (Graymatter Productions) from Etchison's story "The Late Shift". In 1985, Etchison served as staff writer for the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

TV series '' The Hitchhiker''. In 1986,

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...

teamed up with Etchison to write a script to '' Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers''. However, franchise producer

Moustapha Akkad Moustapha Al Akkad ( ar, مصطفى العقاد; July 1, 1930 – November 11, 2005) was a Syrian-American film producer and director, best known for producing the original series of ''Halloween'' films and directing '' The Message'' and ' ...

rejected the Etchison script, calling it "too cerebral" and insisting that any new ''Halloween'' sequel must feature Myers as a flesh and blood killer. In an interview, Etchison explained how he received the phone call informing him of the rejection of his script. Etchison said, "I received a call from Debra Hill and she said, 'Dennis, I just wanted you to know that John and I have sold our interest in the title 'Halloween' and unfortunately, your script was not part of the deal." Carpenter and Hill had signed all of their rights away to Akkad, who gained ownership. Akkad says, "I just went back to the basics of ''Halloween'' on ''Halloween 4'' and it was the most successful." As Carpenter refused to continue his involvement with the series, a new director was sought out.

Dwight H. Little Dwight Hubbard Little (born January 13, 1956) is an Americans, American film director, film and television director, known for directing the films ''Marked for Death'', ''Rapid Fire (1992 film), Rapid Fire'', ''Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home'', ...

, a native of Ohio, replaced Carpenter.

Fiction writing

Etchison's fiction has appeared regularly since 1961 in a wide range of publications including ''Cavalier'', ''The Oneota Review'', ''Rogue'', ''Seventeen'', ''Statement'', ''Fantastic Stories'', ''Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine'', ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', ''Mystery Monthly'', ''Escapade'', ''Adelina'', ''Comet'' (Germany), ''Fiction'' (France), ''Universe'' (France), ''Fantasy Tales'', ''Weirdbook'', ''Whispers'', ''Fantasy Book'' and in such anthologies as ''Orbit'', ''New Writings in SF'', ''Rod Serling's Other Worlds'', ''Prize Stories from Seventeen'', ''The Pseudo-People'', and ''The Future is Now''. His stories can also be found in many of the major horror and dark fantasy anthologies including ''Frights'', ''Dark Forces'', ''Terrors'', ''New Terrors'', ''Horrors'', ''Fears'', ''Nightmares'', ''Shadows'', ''Whispers'', ''Night Chills'', ''Death'', ''World Fantasy Awards'', ''Mad Scientists'', ''Year's Best Horror Stories'', ''The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror'', ''Midnight'' and others. His first

short story collection A short story collection is a book of short stories and/or novellas by a single author. A short story collection is distinguished from an anthology of fiction, which would contain work by several authors (e.g., ''Les Soirées de Médan''). The s ...

, ''The Dark Country'', was published in 1982. Its title story received the

(tied with

), as well as the

for Best Collection of that year – the first time one writer received both major awards for a single work. Etchison nearly had his first short story collection appear eleven years earlier. In 1971 he sold Powell Books, a low-budget Los Angeles based publisher who published

Karl Edward Wagner Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 14 October 1994) was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He ...

's ''Darkness Weaves'', a collection of his science fiction and fantasy under the title ''The Night of the Eye''. The book went into galley proofs and beyond – Etchison received a cover proof, and was assigned. On the eve of its publication, Powell Publications went bankrupt. Etchison would wait over a decade before his actual first collection ''The Dark Country'' would appear, to critical acclaim. Several more collections have been published since, including a career retrospective, ''Talking in the Dark'' (2001), which consists of stories personally selected by the author. He was nominated for the

for "The Late Shift" (1981), and as well as winning the ward in 1982 for "The Dark Country", has won it since for Best Short Story, for "The Olympic Runner" (1986) and "The Dog Park" (1994). Etchison's first novel (discounting two pseudonymous erotic novels), ''The Shudder'', was slated for publication in 1980; he finally withdrew it when the editor demanded what he felt were unreasonable changes in the manuscript. A portion of the novel appeared as one selection in ''A Fantasy Reader'', the book of the Seventh

World Fantasy Convention The World Fantasy Convention is an annual science fiction convention, convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the event. Other features include an art sh ...

in 1981; the full novel remains unpublished. Writing under the pseudonym of "Jack Martin", he published popular

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

s of the films '' Halloween II'' (1981), '' Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' (1982), and ''

Videodrome ''Videodrome'' is a 1983 Canadian Science fiction film, science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Debbie Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO o ...

'' (1983). Under his own name, Etchison's novels include ''Darkside'' (1986), ''Shadowman'' (1993), and '' California Gothic'' (1995), as well as the novelization of

's ''

The Fog ''The Fog'' is a 1980 American supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay and created the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook. It ...

'' (1980). Etchison periodically taught classes in creative writing at

Editorial work

As editor, Etchison has received two

s for Best Anthology, for ''

MetaHorror ''MetaHorror'' is an anthology of stories edited by Dennis Etchison. It was published by Dell Abyss in July 1992. The anthology contains, among several other stories, the Peter Straub short story "The Ghost Village", which was original to the an ...

'' (1993) and '' The Museum of Horrors'' (2002). His other anthologies include the critically acclaimed ''Cutting Edge'' (1986), ''Gathering The Bones'' (2003) (edited with

Ramsey Campbell Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...

and

Jack Dann Jack Dann (born February 15, 1945) is an American writer best known for his science fiction, an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, in the majority of cases as editor or co-edit ...

), and the ''Masters of Darkness'' series (three volumes).

Radio work

In 2002, Etchison adapted nearly 100 episodes of the original Twilight Zone TV series for a CBS radio series hosted by

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fictiona ...

. The programmes were commercially released on audio CDs. Etchison was one of the writers on the audio series Fangoria's Dreadtime Stories hosted by Malcolm McDowell. These horrific stories are available on CD and via digital download at iTunes, Audible and through other outlets.

Essays and other works

*''The Book of Lists: Horror – 2008'' (contributor) * Etchison contributed a Foreword to

George Clayton Johnson George Clayton Johnson (July 10, 1929 – December 25, 2015) was an American science fiction writer, best known for co-writing with William F. Nolan the novel ''Logan's Run'', the basis for the MGM 1976 film. He was also known for his televis ...

's ''All of Us Are Dying and Other Stories'' (Subterranean Press, 1999).

Death

A message posted to Etchison's

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page reported that the author had died on May 28, 2019; no cause of death was given. ''Locus'' magazine published Etchison's obituary on May 29, 2019. He was survived by his wife Kristina.

Critical reception

The late

proclaimed him "the finest writer of psychological horror this genre has ever produced." Charles L. Grant called Etchison "the best short story writer in the field today, bar none." Critical studies of Etchison's work can be found in

Darrell Schweitzer Darrell Charles Schweitzer (born August 27, 1952) is an American writer, editor, and critic in the field of speculative fiction. Much of his focus has been on dark fantasy and horror fiction, horror, although he does also work in science fictio ...

's ''Discovering Modern Horror Fiction'',

Richard Bleiler Richard James Bleiler (born 1959) is an American bibliographer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and adventure fiction. He was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction in 2002 and for the Munsey Award in 2019. He is th ...

's ''Supernatural Fiction Writers'' Kelleghan, Fiona "Dennis Etchison", in Bleiler, Richard, Ed. ''Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror.'' New York: Thomson/Gale, 2003. (pp. 347–354) and "Dennis Etchison: Spanning the Genres" in S. T. Joshi's book ''The Evolution of the Weird Tale'' (2004), 178–89.Joshi, S.T., ''The Evolution of the Weird Tale'', Hippocampus, 2004.

Bibliography

Novels

*''Stud Row'' (LA: Oasis Books, 1969) (written as "H.L. Mensch" by Etchison & Eric Cohen) *''Loves & Intrigues of Damon'' (LA: Oasis Books, 1969) (written as "Ben Dover") (based in part upon an idea by

Charles Beaumont Charles Beaumont (January 2, 1929 – February 21, 1967) was an American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres.Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, "Beaumont, Charles" in David Pringle, ed., '' ...

) *''The Shudder'' (Coward, McCann, Geoghegan, 1980) . Despite Etchison receiving an advance, and the book being assigned an ISBN, the novel was not published; it was withdrawn by the author (see details above). *''The Fog'' (1980) *''Halloween II'' (1981) (written as "Jack Martin") *''Halloween III'' (1982) (written as "Jack Martin") *''Videodrome'' (1983) (written as "Jack Martin") *''Darkside'' (1986) *''Shadowman'' (1993) *''California Gothic'' (1995) *''Double Edge'' (1997)

Short story collections

*''The Dark Country'' (1982) *''Red Dreams'' (1984) *''The Blood Kiss'' (1987) *''The Death Artist'' (2000)

Retrospective collections

*''Talking in the Dark'' (2001) (plus one new story, "Red Dog Down"). This volume marked the 40th anniversary of Etchison's first professional first short story sale. *''Fine Cuts'' (e-collection, Scorpius Digital, 2006) (Hollywood-themed volume plus one previously uncollected story, "Got To Kill Them All") *''Got To Kill Them All and other stories'' (CD Publications, 2008) (plus three previously uncollected stories, "One of Us", "In a Silent Way" and "My Present Wife", together with "Red Dog Down" and "Got To Kill Them All", previously included in prior retrospectives)

As editor

*''Cutting Edge'' (1986) *''Masters of Darkness'' (1986) *''Masters of Darkness II'' (1988) *''Lord John Ten'' (1988) *'' Masters of Darkness III'' (1991) *''The Complete Masters of Darkness'' (1991) *''MetaHorror'' (1992). This anthology won the

for Best Anthology, 1993. *'' The Museum of Horrors'' (Leisure Books, 2001). This anthology won the

for Best Anthology, 2002. *''Gathering The Bones'' (2003) (Edited with

and

)

Other works

*''The Walk: A Tor.Com Original'' (2014)

Select awards and honors

Etchison was nominated for and also won multiple awards for his various works.

References

External links

*
Dennis Etchison
at

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Etchison, Dennis 1943 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American horror writers American fantasy writers American male short story writers World Fantasy Award-winning writers Writers from Stockton, California 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Weird fiction writers