GRANT, Charles L(ewis)

(1942-)

   US writer who has restricted himself since the late 1970s almost exclusively to horror and fantasy fiction (see listing below), mainly under his own name (sometimes in the form C.L. Grant), though he has written books as by Felicia Andrews, Steven Charles, Simon Lake, Lionel Fenn and Geoffrey Marsh. He began publishing work of genre interest with"The House of Evil" for FSF in 1968, but really became active only after the mid-1970s with the release of his first novels, the Parric family series of post- HOLOCAUST tales: The Shadow of Alpha (1976), Ascension (1977) and Legion (1979). Set in a balkanized USA ravaged by a PlagueWindand beset with petty dictators and crazed ANDROIDS, all three novels - they form part of a much longer, uncompleted sequence - are told in a somewhat heated style possibly derived from the example of Samuel R. DELANY, and perhaps more suitably applied, as CLG has seemingly decided,to other genres. Further novels containing sf elements include The Ravens of the Moon (1979), but the precepts of horror fiction are generally dominant. Of his horror, the best known titles fit into the Oxrun Station sequence. He has edited two notable series - Shadows and two of the Night Visions anthologies - and a useful manual, Writing and Selling ScienceFiction (anth 1976). His "A Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye" won the 1978 Best Novelette NEBULA.

   JC

   Fantasy and horror titles:Oxrun Station: The Hour of the Oxrun Dead (1977); The Sound of Midnight (1978); The Last Call of Mourning (1979); The Grave (1981); The Bloodwind (1982); a 19th-century trilogy internal to the Oxrun sequence and comprising The Soft Whisper of the Dead (1982), The Dark Cry of the Moon (1986) and The Long Night of the Grave (1986); Nightmare Seasons (fixup 1982); The Orchard (1986); Dialingthe Wind (1989).Singletons: A Quiet Night of Fear (1981); Tales from the Nightside (coll 1981); A Glow of Candles and Other Stories (coll 1981);The Nestling (1982); Night Songs (1984); The Teaparty (1985); The Pet (1986); For Fear of the Night (1988); In a Dark Dream (1989); Stunts (1990); Fire Mask (1991); Something Stirs (1991); Raven (1993); Jackals (1994); The X Files: Goblins *(1994), tied to the tv series.As Felicia Andrews: Mountainwitch (1980).As Steven Charles: The Private Academy sequence of sf/horror novels for a young-adult audience, comprising Nightmare Session (1986), Academy of Terror (1986), Witch's Eye (1986),Skeleton Key (1986), The Enemy Within (1987) and The Last Alien (1987).As Lionel Fenn: The Quest for the White Duck sequence of comic fantasies, comprising Blood River Down (1986), Web of Defeat (1987), Agnes Day (1987) and The Seven Spears of the W'dch'ck (1988); the Kent Montana series of comic sf tales, which invoke Hollywood icons through the adventures of a failed actor, comprising Kent Montana and the Really Ugly Thing from Mars (1990), Kent Montana and the Reasonably Invisible Man (1991);Kent Montanaand the Once and Future Thing (1991), The Mark of the Moderately Vicious Vampire (1992) and 668: The Neighbor of the Beast (1992); the Diegoseries, featuring a gunslinger who travels through time, and comprising Once Upon a Time in the East (1993), By the Time I Get to Nashville (1994)and The Semi-Final Frontier (1994).As Simon Lake: The Midnight Place sequence comprising Midnight Place: Daughter of Darkness (1992), \#2: Something's Watching (1992), \#3: Death Cycle (1993) and \#4: He Told Me To(1993).As Geoffrey Marsh: The Lincoln Blackthorne thrillers, The King of Satan's Eyes (1984), The Tale of the Arabian, Knight (1986), The Patch of the Odin Soldier (1987) and The Fangs of the Hooded Demon (1988).As editor (series): The Shadows anthologies, comprising Shadows (anth 1978; vtShadows II 1987 UK), \#2 (anth 1979), \#3 (anth 1980), \#4 (anth 1981; vt Shadows 1987 UK), \#5 (anth 1982), \#6 (anth 1983), \#7 (anth 1984), \#8 (anth 1985), \#9 (anth 1986) and \#10 (anth 1987), the entire series being showcased in The Best of Shadows (anth 1988) and Final Shadows (anth 1991); of the Night Visions anthologies, Night Visions 2 (anth 1985; vtNight Visions: Dead Image 1987; vt Night Terrors 1989 UK) and Night Visions 4 (anth 1987; vt Night Fears 1989 UK) uncredited for the UK versions; the Greystone Bay anthologies, comprising The First Chronicles of Greystone Bay * (anth 1985), Doom City * (anth 1987),The SeaHarp Hotel * (anth 1990) and In the Fog: the Final Chronicle of Greystone Bay (anth1993).As editor (singletons): Nightmares (anth 1979); Horrors (anth 1981); Terrors (anth 1983); The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror (anth 1983); vt Gallery of Horror 1983 UK; Midnight (anth 1985); After Midnight (anth 1986).