James Lowder

James Lowder
Born	January 2, 1963 (1963-01-02) Quincy, Massachusetts
Occupation	Novelist, Editor, Film Critic
Nationality	American
Period	1987 to the Present
Genres	Dark fantasy, Horror
Notable work(s)	Prince of Lies Knight of the Black Rose Hobby Games: The 100 Best
Notable award(s)	Origins Award: 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009 Best Fiction; 2008 Best Non-fiction ENnie Award: 2008 Best Regalia
Influences Clark Ashton Smith, Michael Moorcock
www.jameslowder.com

James Daniel Lowder (born January 2, 1963 in Quincy, Massachusetts) is an American author and editor, working most often within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres.

Early life and education

He graduated from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School in 1981 and was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 1991. He graduated from Marquette University in 1985, with an honors BA in English and History, and from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1999, with a Masters in Literary Studies.

Career

His earliest novels were part of the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft shared universe book lines, but beginning in the late 1990s he turned his attention more often to creator-owned projects. Some of his short stories have been cited in the honorable mention list of the annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. He was an Origins Award finalist in the Best Short Fiction category for his 2003 novella, "The Night Chicago Died", a story that featured the debut of his mystery man character, The Corpse. His novels have been translated into more than ten languages.

As an editor, Lowder directed several best-selling book lines for TSR, Inc. in the early 1990s. He has subsequently served as executive editor for Green Knight Publishing's line of Arthurian fiction — the Pendragon fiction series — and as a consulting editor for CDS Books on their City of Heroes novels. Lowder has edited more than a dozen anthologies, with subjects ranging from King Arthur to superheroes to zombies. He has won several Origins Awards and an ENnie Award, and been shortlisted for an International Horror Guild Award for these projects. Though many of these anthologies have been published in connection with role-playing game product lines, they often contain only creator-copyrighted stories. This makes them unusual, as game publishers frequently insist on work for hire contracts for such projects.

Lowder also works in comic books. He has penned scripts for several companies, including DC, Devil's Due, and Desperado. His short work "Lost Loves", from the Moonstone Monsters: Demons anthology, was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award in 2004 for Best Illustrated Narrative. He contributed as a writer and consulting editor to the Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons comic book series, published by Devil's Due. He became the editor for the monthly series Hack/Slash with issue #25 and continued with the series when it moved from Devil's Due to Image.

Lowder's critical essays and film and book reviews have appeared in such publications as Amazing Stories and Polyhedron, the latter of which featured his long-running video review column "Into the Dark" from 1991 to 1994. He has written support material for various role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu.

Notable works

Novels

• Crusade (TSR, 1991)
• Knight of the Black Rose (TSR, 1991)
• The Ring of Winter (TSR, 1992)
• Prince of Lies (TSR, 1993)
• Name Your Nightmare (Random House Sprinter, 1995); written as J.D. Lowder.
• Spectre of the Black Rose (Wizards of the Coast, 1999); with Voronica Whitney-Robinson.

Short Fiction

• "The Family Business" (in Realms of Valor, TSR, 1993)
• "The Rigor of the Game" (in Tales of Ravenloft, TSR, 1994)
• "Laughter in the Flames" (in Realms of Infamy, TSR, 1994)
• "Make 'Em Laugh" (in Truth Until Paradox, White Wolf, 1995)
• "Persistence of Vision" (in City of Darkness: Unseen, White Wolf, 1995)
• "Truth in Advertising" (in The Splendour Falls, White Wolf, 1995)
• "The Price of Freedom" (in Troll Magazine #1, December 1997)
• "The Club Rules" (in Realms of Mystery, TSR, 1998)
• "The Hollow Man" (in Shadis #52, October 1998)
• "Heresies and Superstitions" (in The Leading Edge #39, March 2000)
• "Pretender of the Faith" (in Historical Hauntings, DAW, 2001)
• "The Unquiet Dreams of Cingris the Stout" (in Gaming Frontiers #2, March 2002)
• "The Night Chicago Died" (in Pulp Zombies, Eden Studios, 2003)
• "The Weeping Masks" (in Shadows Over Baker Street, Del Rey, 2003)
• "She Dwelleth in the Cold of the Moon" (in The Repentant, DAW, 2003)
• "Fanboy" (in Path of the Bold, Guardians of Order, 2004)
• "Bandits in the Paths of Fame" (in Dragon #336, October 2005)
• "Beneath the Skin" (in Heroes in Training, DAW, 2007)

Comic Book Scripts

• "Duel of Hearts" (in TSR Worlds Annual #1, DC Comics, September 1990)
• "Art for Art's Sake" (in First Night Program, city of Boston, December 1996)
• "Traitor's Gate" (in Mythography #2 & #3, Bardic Press, February and April 1997)
• "Passion Play" (in Vampire: The Masquerade: Blood and Shadows, Moonstone, November 2003)
• "Lost Loves" (in Moonstone Monsters: Demons, Moonstone, August 2004)
• "The Man Who Collected Gods" (in Negative Burn #16, Desperado, December 2007)
• "The Rigor of the Game" (in Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons #3, Devil's Due, July 2008)
• "Night Funeral in Eminence" (in Hack/Slash, volume 9: Torture Prone, Image, September 2011)
• "The Corpse: Orphans of the Air" (ongoing serial, begins in Hack/Slash #6, Image, September 2011)

Anthologies (as editor)

• Realms of Valor (TSR, 1993)
• Realms of Infamy (TSR, 1994)
• The Doom of Camelot (Green Knight Publishing, 2000)
• The Book of All Flesh (Eden Studios, 2001)
• Legends of the Pendragon (Green Knight Publishing, 2002)
• The Book of More Flesh (Eden Studios, 2002)
• The Book of Final Flesh (Eden Studios, 2003)
• Path of the Just (Guardians of Order, 2003)
• Path of the Bold (Guardians of Order, 2004)
• Astounding Hero Tales (Hero Games, 2007)
• Hobby Games: The 100 Best (Green Ronin Publishing, 2007)
• Worlds of Their Own (Paizo Publishing, 2008)
• The Best of All Flesh (Elder Signs Press, 2009)
• Family Games: The 100 Best (Green Ronin Publishing, 2010)
• Curse of the Full Moon (Ulysses Press, 2010)
• Triumph of The Walking Dead (BenBella Books, 2011)

Awards and nominations

• 2001 The Doom of Camelot, Origins Award nominee, Best Long-Form Fiction
• 2003 The Book of More Flesh, International Horror Guild Award nominee, Best Anthology; Origins Award nominee, Best Long-Form Fiction
• 2004 The Book of Final Flesh, Origins Award winner, Best Long Fiction
• 2004 "The Night Chicago Died", Origins Award nominee, Best Short Fiction
• 2005 Path of the Bold, Origins Award winner, Best Fiction
• 2005 "Lost Loves", Bram Stoker Award nominee, Illustrated Narrative
• 2008 Astounding Hero Tales, Origins Award winner, Fiction Publication of the Year; ENnie Award honorable mention, Best Regalia
• 2008 Hobby Games: The 100 Best, Origins Award winner, Non-Fiction Publication of the Year; ENnie Award winner, silver, Best Regalia
• 2009 Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, Vol. 2, Origins Award winner, Best Fiction; ENnie Award nominee, Best Regalia
• 2010 The Best of All Flesh, Origins Award nominee, Best Book; ENnie Award honorable mention, Best Regalia
• 2011 Family Games: The 100 Best, Origins Award nominee, Best Game-Related Publication;

External links

• Official site
• Worlds of Their Own Interview at Flames Rising (June 2008)
• Interview at Flames Rising, a Horror & Dark Fantasy website (Oct 2006)
• Interview at Candlekeep, a Forgotten Realms fansite
• Interview at Fraternity of Shadows, a Ravenloft fansite
• Publication List at Pen & Paper RPG website
• James Lowder at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database