Michael McDowell (author)

Michael McEachern McDowell (born 1 June 1950 in south-eastern Alabama, died 27 December 1999, Boston, Massachusetts). He received his Ph. D in English from Brandeis University in 1978. McDowell was an American novelist and screenwriter, whom Stephen King once called "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today".

His screen credits include collaboration on Thinner (1996), and on Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1987) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

His novels include genre horror novels such as The Amulet (1979), Cold Moon Over Babylon (1980), and The Elementals (1981); the epic Blackwater (1983), a fifty-year family chronicle of a wealthy Southern dynasty with a supernatural ally, originally published in six short volumes; the surreal Toplin (1985); and the nonsupernatural historical horror novel Gilded Needles (1980), the story of a Victorian criminal family's exquisite revenge upon the family of a sternly bigoted New York judge.

McDowell collaborated with his lover Dennis Schutz in writing four mysteries starring Daniel Valentine and Clarisse Lovelace. Vermillion (1980), Cobalt (1982), Slate (1984), and Canary (1986). These were published under the pseudonym Nathan Aldyne. They are light mysteries set in and around Boston and Provincetown. Daniel is a gay detective and Clarisse is a straight real estate agent (later, a lawyer).

In the early 1980's, McDowell released two psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Axel Young. Both books (especially the second) were over-the-top parodies of Sidney Sheldon-type suspense novels. Blood Rubies in 1982 and Wicked Stepmother in 1983.

According to his bio in the 1985 edition of Toplin, McDowell lived in Massachusetts. The bio described a typical day: McDowell "writes in the mornings and spends the rest of the day looking out of the window in hope that something interesting will happen" and "collects photographs of corpses".

McDowell also wrote the novelization of the movie Clue in 1985. The movie was based on the board game and featured three different endings.

In the mid-1980s, McDowell wrote a series of light mysteries for Ballentine Books, featuring characters reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles, originally created in Dashiell Hammett and popularized by the influential Thin Man movies. The series included Jack and Susan in 1953 (1985), Jack and Susan in 1913 (1986) and Jack and Susan in 1933 (1987). The books chronicled the adventures of an eternally youthful couple and their ever-changing dog. According to an interview, McDowell had contracted to do one for each decade of the century, but he bowed out of the contract after three.

McDowell died in 1999 from AIDS-related illness. His unfinished novel Candles Burning was "completed" by Tabitha King, wife of Stephen King, and published in 2006.

"I am a commercial writer and I'm proud of that", he said in Faces of Fear (interview book) in 1985. "I am writing things to be put in the bookstore next month. I think it is a mistake to try to write for the ages."

Bibliography

• The Amulet (1979)
• Cold Moon Over Babylon (1980)
• Gilded Needles (1980)
• The Elementals (1981)
• Katie (1982)

• Blackwater (1983) comprising:
  • The Flood
  • The Levee
  • The House
  • The War
  • The Fortune
  • Rain

• Toplin (1985)

• Clue (1985)

• Jack and Susan in 1953 (1985)
• Jack and Susan in 1913 (1986)
• Jack and Susan in 1933 (1987)

• Candles Burning (2006)

Under the name Axel Young

• Blood Rubies (1982)
• Wicked Stepmother (1983)

Under the name Nathan Aldyne

• Vermillion (1980)
• Cobalt (1982)
• Slate (1984)
• Canary (1986)