HOUARNER, Gerard Daniel 1955-

PERSONAL: Born May 24, 1955, in New York, NY; son of Joseph (a chef) and Anne (a homemaker; maiden name, Jamet) Houarner; divorced; companion of Linda Addison (a poet and programmer). Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended City College of the City University of New York, 1973-77; Columbia University, M.A., M.Ed., 1981. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues music; science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction.

ADDRESSES: Home—154 Summit Pl., Bronx, NY 10463. Agent—Jack Byrne, Sterling/Byrne Literary Agency, 3209 South 55th St., Milwaukee, WI 53219-4433. E-mail—oddist55@aol.com.

CAREER: Bronx Psychiatric Center, New York, NY, rehabilitation counselor, beginning 1989.

MEMBER: Horror Writers Association.

WRITINGS:

Bard of Sorcery (fantasy novel), Del Rey (New York, NY), 1986.

Painfreak (horror short stories), Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 1996.

(Editor) Going Postal (fantasy, horror, and science fiction anthology), Space and Time (New York, NY), 1998.

Road to Hell (horror/fantasy fiction novel), Necro Publications (Orlando, FL), 1999.

Dead Cat Bounce: A Fable to Horrify the Inner Child (fiction chapbook), illustrated by GAK, Space and Time (New York, NY), 2000.

I Love You and There Is Nothing You Can Do about It (horror short stories), Delirium Books (Webster, IN), 2000.

The Beast That Was Max (horror novel), Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Visions through a Shattered Lens (horror short stories), Delirium Books (Webster, IN), 2002.

Fiction editor, Space and Time.

SIDELIGHTS: Gerard Daniel Houarner once told CA: "I'm driven to write by an overpowering creative impulse. I want to 'make' something, and what I make best appears to be stories. I want to tell stories involving the fantastic, and I want to shock, amaze, and provoke, as well as inspire a sense of wonder.

"I generally start out with an idea for a character, develop the conflict and its resolution based on the needs of that character, and leave myself open to surprises along the way to completing the story. I tend to write freely at the beginning, letting ideas surface as they may, then tighten the beginning and mine it for unconscious ideas that will help resolve the piece. I also tend to write one scene at a time, building it up layer by layer as ideas come, like a painter building a corner of a painting. Thanks to the age of computers, I can easily return and add or delete from earlier scenes, so threads of ideas run consistently through a piece. I find reading a piece aloud after it is finished helps eliminate repetitive elements and technical problems.

"Influences on my writing include myth, Greek drama, Shakespeare, and Kafka. I believe a somewhat isolated childhood sparked my imagination and made me open to a wide range of fantastic elements in various media, from movies to comics to literature. This same isolated childhood shaped my world-view to include both the beautiful and the terrible, comedy and tragedy, life and death. It is these elements that have drawn me to horror and fantasy as genres to explore in my writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Publishers Weekly, October 14, 2002, review of Visions through a Shattered Lens, p. 69.

Science Fiction Chronicle, August, 1999, review of Going Postal, p. 46; October, 2001, review of The Beast That Was Max, p. 43.

ONLINE

Books n Bytes,http://www.booksnbytes.com/ (February 10, 2003), Harriet Klausner, review of The Beast That Was Max.

Dark Echo Horror,http://www.darkecho.com/ (April 27, 2000), Paula Guran, interview with Gerard Daniel Hourarner.

Delirium Books,http://www.deliriumbooks.com/ (February 10, 2003), "Gerard Houarner."

FEO Amante's Horror Home Page,http://www.feoamante.com/ (February 10, 2003), Wrath, review of The Beast That Was Max; Wrath, interview with Gerard Daniel Hourarner.

Gerard Hourarner, Writer: Stories You Don't Always Take Home to Mother,http://www.cith.org/gerard/ (May 17, 2004).*