WRIGHT, T(errance) M(ichael) 1947-

(F. W. Armstrong)

PERSONAL: Born September 9, 1947, in Syracuse, NY; son of Miles Delose (a machinist) and Marie (a teacher; maiden name, Aubin) Wright; married Sally Alnor, June 25, 1966 (divorced); married Margaret Hayes, December 27, 1973 (divorced); married Christine Basile (a teacher and artist), December 17, 1977; children: Rachel Wright Dater, Erika Christine, Dorian Basile. Politics: Liberal independent. Hobbies and other interests: Maine coon cats, Boston terriers, vegetarian cooking.

CAREER: Writer. Has also worked as a word processor, advertising copywriter, and teacher of creative writing. Military service: U.S. Air Force, 1965.

WRITINGS:

The Intelligent Man's Guide to Flying Saucers, A. S. Barnes (San Diego, CA), 1968.

Strange Seed, Everest House (New York, NY), 1978.

The Woman Next Door, Playboy Paperbacks (Chicago, IL), 1981.

Nursery Tale, Playboy Paperbacks (Chicago, IL), 1982.

The Playground, Tor (New York, NY), 1982.

Carlisle Street, Tor (New York, NY), 1983.

The Children of the Island, Jove (New York, NY), 1983.

A Manhattan Ghost Story, Tor (New York, NY), 1984.

The People of the Dark, Tor (New York, NY), 1985.

(Under pseudonym F. W. Armstrong) The Changing, Tor (New York, NY), 1985.

The Waiting Room, Tor (New York, NY), 1986.

(Under pseudonym F. W. Armstrong) The Devouring, Tor (New York, NY), 1987.

The Island, Tor (New York, NY), 1988.

The Place, Tor (New York, NY), 1989.

The School, Tor (New York, NY), 1990.

Boundaries, Tor (New York, NY), 1990.

The Last Vampire, Gollancz (London, England), 1991, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Little Boy Lost, Tor (New York, NY), 1992.

Goodlow's Ghosts, Tor (New York, NY), 1993.

Sleepeasy, Gollancz (London, England), 1993.

The Ascending, Tor (New York, NY), 1994.

Erthmun, Gollancz, 1995.

Laughing Man, Dorchester Publishing (New York, NY), 2003.

Cold House, Catalyst Books (New York, NY), 2003.

The House on Orchid Street, Dorchester Publishing (New York, NY), 2003.

Author of afterword for By Reason of Darkness, by William P. Simmons, Dominion, 2004. Wright's novels have been translated into fourteen languages.

SIDELIGHTS: T. M. Wright is primarily an author of horror novels that intend to be frightening without resorting to gore or gratuitous violence. In many of his works, Wright is concerned with the interactions between the dead and the living, or between the spirit and the corporeal worlds. Ordinary people are "haunted" by odd, feral children, or malevolent demons, or creatures from other planes of existence. As Don D'Ammassa commented in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers: "T. M. Wright's horror novels characteristically involve the confrontation of his characters with the realization that the world isn't quite the way they thought it was, that the border between life and death isn't quite so distinct, that strange creatures live in familiar woods, making them alien, and that nothing else is quite what it seems either."

Some of Wright's novels feature hauntings in bucolic settings such as new suburban neighborhoods or swatches of otherwise picturesque woodlands. Others are set in Manhattan or other large cities, where the ghosts and changelings make effective use of the urban atmosphere in creating their terrors. Critics of the author's books have often been intrigued by some of the story concepts that Wright develops, but some have felt he does not carry these ideas through to a satisfying conclusion. For example, in The School, Wright came up with an idea in which a school house being converted into a private residence is haunted not only by the spirits of several students and a teacher who died there, but also by the child spirits of people who later survived into adulthood. When Frank and Allison Hitchcock move there after losing their son, plenty of mysterious goings on occur. However, a few reviewers felt that the story does not conclude satisfactorily. Sybil Steinberg, called the novel "unfulfilling" though "bafflingly atmospheric." On the other hand, Library Journal contributor A. M. B. Amantia recommended The School as an "eerie novel" that convinces the reader that its premise could be real.

Critics had similar observations about Wright's Little Boy Lost, which is about a demon who kills Miles Gale's first wife, then disguises itself as the woman who becomes his second wife, Marie, in order to bear his child. When Marie disappears and whisks their son away, Miles comes under suspicion of not only the death of his first wife but also of possibly killing Marie and his son. A Publishers Weekly critic, noting how the author tries to combine fantasy and horror, felt that the story "disappoints in both genres." However, Diane Goheen, writing in School Library Journal, enjoyed the "spellbinding plot," though she noted that the lack of well-developed secondary characters was a "weakness."

A number of Wright's books combine horror with the crime fiction genre, including his stories featuring Ryerson "Rye" Biergarten, a detective with psychic powers who first appears in Goodlow's Ghosts. In this tale, Biergarten becomes involved in the case of a murdered cop named Sam Goodlow when the detective's spirit visits him. A Publishers Weekly reviewer found this premise promising, but felt that "Wright's provocative ideas, which could serve as raw material for several books, are never brought to fruition." Rye returns in The Ascending, a supernatural thriller set in the urban landscapes of Chicago, New York City, and Toronto. In this case, a psychic must attempt to find a serial killer who guts his victims and stuffs them in the ceiling spaces in high-rise buildings. While Library Journal contributor Rebecca House Stankowski complained that the reader is never allowed to understand the murderer's motives, and that there are several plot lines that are left "dangling," a Publishers Weekly reviewer appreciated how Wright "convincingly proves that he understands, as few do, how to give a scare without spilling blood all over the page."

Among Wright's other crime/horror books are several that do not include the Rye character, such as Manhattan Ghost Story and Laughing Man. In the former, spirits prey upon the living in New York City with deadly results. D'Ammassa found Manhattan Ghost Story to be "one of Wright's best works, carefully utilizing his talent for evoking strange images with traditional narrative values." The creepy Laughing Man features detective Jack Erthmun, whose peculiar habits involving nudity seem to mimic those of a series of murderers who prefer to be naked when they kill their victims. Jack can also move preternaturally quick, a trait he shares with the mysterious murderers. Reviewing Laughing Man in Booklist, critic Ray Olson complimented Wright on his ability to "creep you out" in an "unsettling yarn."

The books Wright publishes under his own name are somewhat unconventional and idiosyncratic. More conventional plotting and themes can be found in the books he releases under the pseudonym F. W. Armstrong, including The Changing, which is about a werewolf, and The Devouring, a vampire tale. D'Ammassa concluded that throughout all of his work, Wright "shares with Charles L. Grant the gift of writing a truly frightening story that relies on subtlety and mood rather than overt horror themes."

Wright once told CA: "I started writing to escape from a crummy childhood and because I wanted to tell stories. I am a very politically motivated person, and I used to let that get in the way of my writing. I'm not so much a horror writer as a writer of dark, psychological terror and ghost stories."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

King, Stephen, Stephen King's Danse Macabre, Everest House (New York City), 1981.

St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1998, pp. 654-655.

Winter, Douglas, Faces of Fear: Encounters with the Creators of Modern Horror, Berkley Publishing (New York, NY), 1985.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1992, Ray Olson, review of Little Boy Lost, p. 1748; December 15, 1992, Ray Olson, review of Goodlow's Ghosts, p. 718; January 1, 2003, Ray Olson, review of Laughing Man, p. 862.

Book Report, September-October, 1993, Zenata Pierre, review of Little Boy Lost, p. 50.

Library Journal, August, 1990, A. M. B. Amantia, review of The School, p. 146; July, 1994, Rebecca House Stankowski, review of The Ascending, p. 130.

Publishers Weekly, July 2, 1982, "Nursery Tale," p. 52; June 15, 1984, "A Manhattan Ghost Story," p. 80; July 18, 1986, John Mutter, review of The Waiting Room, p. 84; March 25, 1988, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Island, p. 49; June 2, 1989, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Place, p. 72; July 6, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of The School, p. 57; June 8, 1992, review of Little Boy Lost, p. 54; December 7, 1992, review of Goodlow's Ghosts, p. 56; June 20, 1994, review of The Ascending, p. 96.

School Library Journal, December, 1992, Diane Goheen, review of Little Boy Lost, p. 150.*