Tim Waggoner brings us another gripping tale of demonic possession in his newest book, Cross Country In this story, Sheriff Joanne Talon investigates brutal killings and finds herself confronting gruesome truths from a suppressed past. To research the book, Waggoner explored an ancient burial ground close to his home and studied criminal forensics. Blending the supernatural with crime drama is a challenging technique that he revisits in many of his works to build rich, textured settings.
Like most of us ink-stained wretches (to use Kirk Vonnegut's term for his fellow writers), Waggoner's career as a professional storyteller began in childhood. His father was an avid reader of genre, particularly science-fiction, and Waggoner was intrigued by these books with their imaginative covers.
One of his first attempts at storytelling was a comic book he created: The Bionic Team. But the ideas came faster than Waggoner could draw them and he abandoned the sketchpad for the writing tablet. He pursued his desire to tell stories by studying theater but discovered that his passion was in creating and writing stories of his own. So he shifted his studies to teaching and English. Waggoner wrote several short stories and two novels as an undergraduate. Convinced that his future was as a writer, he honed his craft in a creative writing Masters of the Arts program. Even though he was immersed in classic literature, Waggoner's professors encouraged his interest in
genre fiction. But Waggoner didn't just want to write, he wanted to get published. He spent many hours studying articles in Writer's Digest. And he relentlessly applied that proven dictum for successful writers: read, read, read, then write, write, write.
In keeping with his own advice, Waggoner reads across the spectrum of literature. His influences are the works by Tom Piccirilli, Joe Lansdale, and Lawrence Block. He also draws inspiration from such TV shows as Dark Shadows, Twin Peaks, and American Gothic.A prolific writer, Waggoner has penned over 70 short stories, hundreds of articles, and well over a dozen novels. His nonfiction work focuses on sharing his experiences as an author and teacher to help aspiring writers (and the published as well--trust me, the learning never stops).
Waggoner's novels are consistently praised for his complex characters and his compelling plot twists. His novel, Like Death, was named one of the best books of 2005 by HorrorReader.com. His titles span traditional crime noir in Dying For It, horror vampire in Necropolis, and supernatural terror in Darkness Wakes. His short stories have
been included in numerous anthologies including the prestigious Cemetery Dance. His fantasy novels are the epic Godfire series, and his young adult novels are the series Dragondance Novel: The New Adventures. For future work, he's been signed to write several tie-in fantasy novels, two spy novels, and a Stargate SG-1 novel. As a personal
project, he'd like to write a sequel to Cross Country.
Presently, besides writing novels, Waggoner teaches composition and creative writing as a tenured Associate Professor of English at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. He's also a faculty mentor in Seton Hill University's Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. To enter the dark and fascinating world of Tim Waggoner, visit his website: http://www.timwaggoner.com
Contributing editor Mario Acevedo writes the
Felix Gomez vampire-detective series for HarperCollins. Besides
collecting rejection letters, Mario's experiences include military
helicopter pilot, paratrooper, engineer, corporate clock-watcher, and
art teacher to incarcerated felons. Mario lives and writes in Denver,
Colorado.
