Dennis Etchison

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Etchison at the World Horror Convention 2008 in Salt Lake City

Dennis William Etchison (* the 30th March 1943 in Stockton , California ; † 28. May 2019 ) was an American fantasy - and horror - a writer and editor .

While he has gained some recognition as a writer, it is Etchison's short story format work that is particularly appreciated by critics and fans, such as his debut collection, The Dark Country (1982), which was selected as one of the Top 100 Horror Books. He was president of the Horror Writers Association from 1992 to 1994 . He has won multiple awards, three times the British Fantasy Award for fiction and the World Fantasy Award for anthologies.

biography

As an only child, he spent the first years of his life in a deserted household because World War II was still being fought all over the world. Etchison had noticed that in his early years he was severely spoiled and largely isolated from other children. This feeling of isolation and the need to interact with society later became the subject of much of his work. In his early years, Etchison also became an avid wrestling fan. Fascinated by the interplay of good and bad, he regularly attended shows with his father in the Olympic Auditorium. His passion for the sport continued and he often wrote under the pseudonym "The Pro" for the wrestling publication Rampage .

In middle and high school, Etchison wrote for the school newspaper and won numerous essay competitions. He discovered and emulated Ray Bradbury during this time before developing his own style. On the last day of high school, Etchison began writing his first short story. Under the title Odd Boy Out , featured a group of teenagers in the woods. He started submitting it to numerous science fiction magazines, but received rejections each time. He then recalled Ray Bradbury who once suggested that a writer should first submit his work to the least likely market. So he submitted his short story to a men's magazine called Escapade , and a few weeks later received a check for $ 125. A message posted on Etchison's Facebook page reported that the author had died on May 28, 2019. No cause of death was given.

Film studies and scripts

Etchison has been writing professionally in many genres since 1960. He attended UCLA film school in the 1960s and has written many scripts that have not yet been produced, from both his own works and those of Ray Bradbury ( The Fox and the Forest ) and Stephen King ( The Mist ). He rewrote a Colin Wilson screenplay ( The Ogre ) and completed a screenplay based on his own short story The Late Shift . He co-wrote a story for the television series Logan's Run : The Thunder Gods .

In 1983, Etchison was approached by Stephen King, the film advisor / historian on King's book on the horror genre, Danse Macabre . In 1984 ZBS Media produced a 90-minute radio version of Stephen King's The Mist based on Etchison's script. One film, Killing Tim , was directed by Patrick Aumont and Damian Harris (Graymatter Productions) of Etchison's story The Late Shift . In 1985, Etchison worked as a full-time writer for the HBO television series The Hitchhiker . In 1986, John Carpenter worked with Etchison to write a screenplay for Halloween IV - Michael Myers Returns .

“Halloween was banned in Haddonfield and I think that the basic idea was that if you tried to suppress something, it would only rear its head more strongly. By the very [attempt] of trying to erase the memory of Michael Myers, [the teenagers] were going to ironically bring him back into existence. "

“Halloween was banned in Haddonfield and I think the basic idea was that if you tried to suppress something, it would only raise its head more. Ironically, in trying to erase the memory of Michael Myers, [the teenagers] wanted to bring him back to life. "

- Dennis Etchison : blumhouse.com

However, franchise producer Moustapha Akkad turned down the Etchison script, calling it "too cerebral" and insisting that every new sequel to Halloween Myers must feature as the flesh and blood killer. In an interview, Etchison explained how he received the call informing him that his script had been rejected. Etchison said: "I got a call from Debra Hill and she said, 'Dennis, I just wanted you to know that John and I sold our interest in the Halloween title and unfortunately your script wasn't part of the deal.' Carpenter and Hill had ceded all of their rights to Akkad who thereby came into possession. Akkad said, “I just came back to the primal jumps of Halloween in Halloween 4 and it was the most successful film.” When Carpenter refused to go any further To deal with the series, a new director was sought, with Dwight H. Little of Ohio replacing Carpenter.

Fiction

Etchison's fiction works have appeared regularly in a large number of publications since 1961. His stories can also be found in many great horror and dark fantasy anthologies. His first collection of short stories, The Dark Country , was published in 1982. The cover story received the World Fantasy Award as well as the British Fantasy Award for the best collection of the year - for the first time an author received both main prizes for a single work.

Etchison's first collection of short stories had appeared almost eleven years earlier. In 1971 he sold Powell Books, a Los Angeles- based low-budget publisher that published Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner , a collection of his science fiction and fantasy works under the title The Night of the Eye . Powell Publications went bankrupt on the eve of its publication. Etchison would wait over a decade for his actual first collection, The Dark Country, to appear.

Since then, several other collections have been published, including the career retrospective Talking in the Dark (2001), which consists of stories personally selected by the author. He was nominated for the British Fantasy Award for The Late Shift (1981) and won it in 1982 with The Dark Country , Olympic Runner (1986) and The Dog Park (1994).

Etchison's first novel, The Shudder , was scheduled for publication in 1980; he finally withdrew it when the editor requested what he believed to be an unreasonable change to the manuscript. Part of the novel appeared as a selection in A Fantasy Reader , the book of the seventh World Fantasy Convention in 1981; The full novel remains unpublished.

He wrote under the pseudonym "Jack Martin" and published popular novel versions of the films Halloween II - The Horror Returns , Halloween III , and Videodrome . Etchison published the novels Darkside (1986), Shadowman (1993) and California Gothic (1995) as well as the novel version of John Carpenter's The Fog (1980) under his own name .

Etchison has regularly taught creative writing classes at UCLA.

Editorial work

As editor, Etchison received two World Fantasy Awards for Best Anthology for MetaHorror (1993) and The Museum of Horrors (2002). His other anthologies include the critically acclaimed Cutting Edge (1986), Gathering The Bones (2003) (edited by Ramsey Campbell and Jack Dann ), and the Masters of Darkness series (three volumes).

radio

In 2002, Etchison adapted nearly 100 episodes of the original Twilight Zone television series for a CBS radio series hosted by Stacy Keach . The programs were released commercially on audio CDs. Etchison was one of the authors of the Malcolm McDowell hosted audio series, Fangoria's Dreadtime Stories . These horror stories are available on CD and digital download from iTunes , Audible and other providers.

reception

Karl Edward Wagner said about him:

“The finest writer of psychological horror this genre has ever produced”

"The best writer of psychological horror this genre has ever produced"

- Karl Edward Wagner : Babbage Press

Charles L. Grant said of Etchison:

"The best short story writer in the field today"

"The best short story writer in the field today"

- Charles L. Grant : Babbage Press

Critical studies of Etchison's work can be found in Darrell Schweitzer's Discovering Modern Horror Fiction and in Richard Bleiler's Supernatural Fiction Writers and Dennis Etchison: Spanning the Genres in ST Joshi's book The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004), 178-89.

Etchison said of his work:

"... rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world ..."

"... rather dark, depressing, almost pathological inner fiction about the individual in relation to the world ..."

- Dennis Etchison

Stephen King said of Etchison:

"... one hell of a fiction writer ..."

"... he's the hell of a horror writer ..."

- Stephen King

and he became:

"The most original living horror writer in America"

"The most original living horror writer in America"

- The Viking-Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural

called.

Awards (selection)

Etchison has been nominated for many works and has received several awards.

  • 1977: World Fantasy Convention , World Fantasy Award , Best Short Fiction, It Only Comes Out at Night , Nominated
  • 1981: British Fantasy Society , British Fantasy Award , Best Short Fiction, The Late Shift , Nominated
  • 1982: British Fantasy Society, British Fantasy Award, Best Short Story, The Dark Country , Winner
  • 1982: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Short Fiction, The Dark Country , Winner
  • 1983: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Short Fiction, Deathtracks , Nominated
  • 1983: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Anthology / Collection, The Dark Country , Nominated
  • 1987: British Fantasy Society, British Fantasy Award, Best Short Story, The Olympic Runner , Winner
  • 1987: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Anthology / Collection, Cutting Edge , Nominated
  • 1988: Horror Writers Association , Bram Stoker Award , Best Fiction Collection, The Blood Kiss , Nominated
  • 1989: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Collection, The Blood Kiss , Nominated
  • 1993: Horror Writers Association, Bram Stoker Award, Best Short Fiction, The Dog Park , Nominated
  • 1997: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Short Fiction, The Dead Cop , Nominated
  • 1998: International Horror Guild , International Horror Guild Award , Best Short Form, Inside the Cackle Factory , nominated
  • 2000: International Horror Guild, International Horror Guild Award, Best Collection, The Death Artist , nominated
  • 2001: International Horror Guild, International Horror Guild Award, Best Anthology, The Museum of Horrors , nominated
  • 2001: International Horror Guild, International Horror Guild Award, Best Collection, Talking in the Dark , nominated
  • 2002: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Anthology, The Museum of Horrors , Winner
  • 2002: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Collection, Talking in the Dark , Nominated
  • 2003: Horror Writers Association, Bram Stoker Award, Best Anthology, Gathering the Bones (with Ramsey Campbell and Jack Dann ), nominated
  • 2003: International Horror Guild, International Horror Guild Award, Best Anthology, Gathering the Bones (with Ramsey Campbell and Jack Dann), nominated
  • 2004: World Fantasy Convention, World Fantasy Award, Best Anthology, Gathering the Bones , Nominated
  • 2009: Horror Writers Association, Bram Stoker Award, Best Collection, Got to Kill Them All & Other Stories , nominated
  • 2016: Horror Writers Association, Bram Stoker Award, Lifetime Achievement, Winner

bibliography

Novels

Story collections

Short stories (published in German)

  • A nice, shady spot , 1990, A Nice, Shady Place , 1963
  • The Fires of Night , 1967, The Fires of Night , 1965
  • Heavy Walk , 1979, A Walk in the Wet , 1967
  • Fraukind , 1977, Damechild , 1970
  • The Night of the Eye , 1990, The Night of the Eye , 1970
  • Infernal Angel of Mercy , 1978, The Machine Demands a Sacrifice , 1972
  • Daughter of the Golden West , 2007, Daughter of the Golden West , 1973
  • The Soft Wall , 1990, The Soft Wall , 1974
  • Death's Edge , 1990, The Dead Line , 1979
  • Blood Game , 1990, Bloodgame , 1980
  • The Spot , 1990, The Spot , 1980
  • House Call , 1990, Call Home , 1983
  • Someone like you , 1990, Somebody Like You , 1984
  • The Woman in Black , 1990, The Woman in Black , 1984
  • Dead Space , 1990, Deadspace , 1985
  • The Olympic runner , 1990, The Olympic Runner , 1986
  • Dial 666 , 1990, Call 666 , 1988
  • Blood and Kisses , 1990, The Blood Kiss , 1988
  • In der Traumfabrik , 2017, Inside the Cackle Factory , 1998

Published anthologies

literature

  • Schweitzer, Darrell. [Interview with Dennis Etchison]. Fantasy Newsletter, 4, No 3 , 1981
  • Stamm, Michael E. The Dark Side of the American Dream: Dennis Etchison , In Darrell Schweitzer, Discovering Modern Horror Fiction , Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1985, pp. 48-55
  • Wagner, Karl Edward. On Fantasy 'column devoted to Etchsion , Fantasy Newsletter , 6, No 2, 1982

Web links

Commons : Dennis Etchison  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rob Latham: Grim Hints and Nervous Portents: On Dennis Etchison. In: LARB. July 13, 2019, accessed November 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Stephen Jones and Kim Newman (Eds.) Horror: The 100 Best Books. Running Press, 1993
  3. ↑ Facebook Post
  4. ^ Blumhouse interview with Dennis Etchison
  5. ↑ An AMC Special "Backdraft", a show about behind the scenes information about the Halloween franchise
  6. ^ Moustapha Akkad. (2006). Halloween: 25 Years of Terror DVD  [DVD]. Trancas International Pictures.
  7. ↑ 1982 World Fantasy Award winners and nominees . World Fantasy Convention. Archived from the original on May 9, 2009. Retrieved July 9, 2007.
  8. ^ British Fantasy Society Award Winner 1972-2006 . British Fantasy Organization. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 9, 2007.
  9. ^ Karl Edward Wagner: The Dark Country . Babbage Press, blurb by Wagner. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
  10. ^ Charles L. Grant: The Dark Country . Babbage Press, blurb by Grant. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  11. ↑ trunk, ME Dark side of the American Dream, The: Dennis Etchison in: Schweitzer, Darrell, ed. Discovering Modern Horror Fiction I . Mercer Island: Starmont, 1985. (pp. 48-55).
  12. ↑ Kelleghan, Fiona "Dennis Etchison", in Bleiler, Richard, Ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror. New York: Thomson / Gale, 2003. (pp. 347–354)
  13. ↑ Joshi, ST, The Evolution of the Weird Tale , Hippocampus, 2004. Fdark
personal data
SURNAME Etchison, Dennis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Etchison, Dennis William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American horror and fantasy writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockton
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 2019