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 Certainly best known for his work in the horror and dark fantasy genres, Scott F. Falkner has always described himself first and foremost as a "speculative fiction" author. As a matter of fact, Falkner has said that he didn't fully embrace and appreciate horror until he entered college. Born in the small town of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, U.S. in 1973, Falkner always had an affinity for the strange and off-beat. His imagination was sparked by an intense love of reading handed down to him by his mother. Weekly trips to the library and a horde of books at home made certain that Falkner always had "a multitude of means to escape reality". He also cites the first movie he ever saw as "...show [ing] me that anything was truly possible through imagination". Like many others of Falkner's generation, George Lucas' Star Wars changed the very young boy's life for the better and opened his eyes to an entirely new realm of possibilities. The first thing Falkner remembers writing 'extensively' was an on-going assignment given by his seventh grade teacher. "It was called S.S.W. - or Sustained Silent Writing." The assignment was simple; each day the students were to write anything at all for ten solid minutes. However, instead of writing the routine journals that many of the other children undertook, Falkner decided to write on ongoing story that revolved around a world called 'Aukoria'. "I don't recall any specific storylines, but I remember there being pirate ships, and dwarves... and dragons." In high-school, writing took a back seat to music and art. With a devout love of thrash and metal bands like Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, and Slayer, Falkner formed The Dark with his friend, Brian Ristola. "Brian played guitar and I got a bass, and all of a sudden we had a band going. We picked up a drummer friend from school and started banging out covers. The next thing I knew we were playing Zeppelin and Anthrax at a wedding! It was a ton of fun." This period also marked the beginning of Falkner's love affair with comic books and graphic novels. Artists like Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld were starting to buck the Marvel and DC dominated comic universes, and Falkner happily watched it unfold week after week. Always having a 'knack' for art, Falkner dove headlong into reproducing his favorite heroes and antiheroes through pencil and ink sketches. All through this, he kept up with reading 'regular' books as well. The science fiction of Arthur C. Clarke, as well as the fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard dominated his bookshelves. Falkner started college at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire in 1991. Loathe to choose a major, he debated between English, Theater, Philosophy, and Art throughout his freshman year. Reading Stephen King's The Stand in 1992 made the decision for him. Falkner had always enjoyed reading and writing, but "I didn't see what was really possible - as far as literature went - until I read that book." English became Falkner's focus... for the time being. A number of personal setbacks, including the death of his father in 1993, mired down Falkner's university experience. He entered what he would later call his 'introspective' period, and penned over a hundred poems. He became obsessed with the poetry of John Keats and John Milton, and lost himself in the stories of Tom Robbins, Franz Kafka, and Joseph Conrad. Finding it difficult to claw his way out of a seemingly endless downward spiral of alcohol and depression, Falkner once again turned to writing. In 1995, he started writing is first 'real' book. He worked day in and day out on what he now describes as "...a two-hundred thousand word science fiction epic that went nowhere." But not all was lost. The book was brilliant practice and demonstrated to Falkner that he could actually pen a full-length manuscript. In 1996, as a byproduct of his depression and a "...genuine lack of interest in what university life had to offer..." Falkner dropped out of college and found work at a local NBC affiliate as part of the studio floor crew. In 1997, Falkner made the move to Madison, Wisconsin, and found work with another network affiliate. He moved in with his college girlfriend, and promptly began work on a new writing project... this time with a horror slant. The new horror novel took several drafts and several years to complete. When it was finished, Falkner didn't dally. He'd experienced the thrill that accompanied the completion of "...what I really thought was a solid novel-length manuscript." He started sending Swaybuck out to publishers while writing his next book. In his post collegiate days, Falkner's influences widened considerably. In addition to Clarke, King, Lucas, Burroughs, Howard and Keats, Falkner now adds Clive Barker, Stanley Kubrick, Neil Gaiman and Richard Matheson to the list of artists he's learned the most from. Recent years have produced a torrential onslaught of creativity from Falkner in the form of books, stories, and paintings. The Feast of Catchville, the first of his books to be published, broke the single month selling record for his publisher, Stone Garden Books in March of 2006, and received critical acclaim. Swaybuck was released in June of the same year as the first hardcover produced by the independent publisher. With Delving: Obligations, the first volume of an extensive dark fantasy trilogy, scheduled for a summer, 2007 release, a ground breaking online science fiction serial, and a slew of to-be-announced projects in the wings, Falkner shows no sign of slowing down. Though he's traveled extensively throughout the continental U.S., he's "thoroughly" satisfied with calling his native Wisconsin home... though he does admit to being partial to the American southwest: "Maybe some day I'll be able to split my time between Wisconsin and the desert... you know? Like Frank Lloyd Wright." Ren Richfield is a long-time friend and colleague of Scott F. Falkner.
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