Lewis Shiner


Lewis Shiner is an American writer.
Shiner began his career as a science fiction writer, and then identified with cyberpunk. He later wrote more mainstream novels, albeit often with magical realism and fantasy elements. He was formerly a resident of Texas, and now lives in North Carolina.

Life and career

Shiner graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1973.
Several of his novels have rock music as a theme or main focus, especially the musicians of the late 1960s; for example, Shiner's 1993 novel Glimpses considers the great never-recorded albums of The Doors, Brian Wilson, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. Say Goodbye: The Laurie Moss Story focuses on a fictional up-and-coming female musician and her subsequent fall back down. Slam is immersed in skate punk and anarchist culture. Perhaps because novels with music as a major theme are not generally considered mainstream genre material, his work has frequently been overlooked.
He is a contributing author to the George R. R. Martin-edited anthology Wild Cards, notably creating that universe's most powerful character, the tantric sex magic wielding pimp, Fortunato.
In July 2007 Shiner created the web site Fiction Liberation Front as a venue for his short stories. The stories are released under the Creative Commons license and are available in HTML and PDF formats.
Since 2006, Shiner has been a card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World.
On July 22, 2007, The News & Observer began publishing a weekly column by Shiner, titled "Graphic Scenes", about comics.

Novels

  • Frontera. Riverdale, NY, US: Baen, 1984.
  • Deserted Cities of the Heart. New York, NY, US: Doubleday, 1988.
  • Slam. New York, NY, US: Doubleday, 1990.
  • Glimpses. New York, NY, US: William Morrow & Co., 1993.
  • Say Goodbye. New York, NY, US: St Martin's, 1999.
  • Black & White. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2008.
  • Dark Tangos. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2011.
  • Outside the Gates of Eden. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2019.

    Collections

  • Nine Hard Questions about the Nature of the Universe. Eugene, OR, US: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991. No ISBN
  • The Edges of Things. Baltimore, WA, US: Washington Science Fiction Association, 1991.
  • Twilight Time. Eugene, OR, US: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991. No ISBN
  • Private Eye Action As You Like It with Joe R. Lansdale. Holyoke, MA, US: Crossroads Press, 1998.
  • Love in Vain. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2001.
  • Shades of Gray. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2008.
  • Love in Vain. Greenwood, WA, Australia: Ticonderoga Publications, 2009.
  • Collected Stories. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2009.
  • Widows & Orphans. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2009.
  • Heroes and Villains. Burton, MI, US: Subterranean Press, 2017.

    Wild Cards

  • Wild Cards I: Wild Cards - contains the short stories "The Long Dark Night of Fortunato" and "Epilogue: Third Generation" written by Shiner in 1986
  • Wild Cards II: Aces High - contains the short story "Pennies from Hell" written by Shiner in 1987
  • Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild - contains segments of the character "Fortunato" written by Shiner in 1987
  • Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad - contains the short story "Zero Hour" written by Shiner in 1988

    Editor

  • Modern Stories #1 : A self-published fanzine featuring original fiction by William Gibson, Howard Waldrop, and Joe R. Lansdale, among others.
  • ''When The Music's Over''

    Comics

  • Time Masters Art by Art Thibert and Jose Marzan Jr.
  • "Scales" Art by Carlos Kastro in Omnibus: Modern Perversity
  • The Hacker Files Art by Tom Sutton
  • "Steam Engine Time" Art by Doug Potter in ''Wild West Show''