Wooley, John (Steven) 1949- (Robert B. Leslie, Jerome Severs; Mick Winters, a joint pseudonym)

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WOOLEY, John (Steven) 1949- (Robert B. Leslie, Jerome Severs; Mick Winters, a joint pseudonym)

PERSONAL: Born April 4, 1949, in St. Paul, MN; son of John MacFarlane (a high school administrator) and Ruth (a town clerk; maiden name, Seely) Wooley; married Janis Botz (special services director, Chelsea Public Schools, OK), June 16, 1979; children: Jonathan, Steven. Education: Oklahoma State University, B.S., 1970; Central Oklahoma State University, M.A., 1977. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Presbyterian.

ADDRESSES: Office—Tulsa World Entertainment, Section 315, S. Boulder Ave., Tulsa, OK 74103-3401.

CAREER: Ralston-Purina Co., Edmond, OK, plant sanitarian, 1971; associated with Bruce Webster Films, 1974-77; Oscar Rose Junior College, Midwest City, OK, teacher of English composition and literature, 1977-79; KWPR-AM Radio, Claremore, OK, announcer, 1980-82; Tulsa World Entertainment, Tulsa, OK, writer, 1984—. Co-founder of Robert B. Leslie Foundation, 1975-79. Military service: U.S. Naval Reserve, 1970-76, active duty, 1971-73; served in the Philippines and Vietnam; reached Yeoman Second Class; while on active duty was a USS New Orleans (LPH-11) Sailor of the Quarter; received the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.

MEMBER: Oklahoma Center for the Book.

WRITINGS:

(With Ron Wolfe) Old Fears (novel), F. Watts (New York, NY), 1982.

(Editor) Robert Leslie Bellem, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, Popular Press (Bowling Green, OH), 1983.

(With Ron Wolfe, under pseudonym Mick Winters) Full Moon, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 1989.

(Editor) John K. Butler, At the Stroke of Midnight, Adventure House (Silver Spring, MD), 1993.

(With Thomas Conner and Mark Brown) Forever Lounge: A Laid-back Price Guide to the Languid Sounds of Lounge Music, Antique Trader Books (Norfolk, VA), 1999.

(With Jim Halsey) How to Make It in the Music Business, Hawk Publishing Group (Tulsa, OK), 2000.

Dark Within (novel), Hawk Publishing Group (Tulsa, OK), 2000.

Awash in the Blood (novel), Hawk Publishing Group (Tulsa, OK), 2001.

Also author of Death's Door, 1992. Writer and creator of comic-book series "Miracle Squad," 1986-89, "Uncanny Man-Frog," 1987, and "Twilight Avenger," 1987-89. Creator of Plan Nine from Outer Space (graphic novel), 1990, and Plan Nine from Outer Space: Thirty Years Later, 1991. Contributor to books, including Fangoria: Masters of the Dark, edited by Anthony Timpone, HarperPrism, 1997, The Listener's Guide to Audio Books, by John Wynne, Simon and Schuster, 1995, and the "Spicy Stories" series (Spicy Detective Stories, for Eternity Publishing, 1989, and Spicy Western Stories, Spicy Mystery Stories, and Spicy Horror Stories, all for Malibu Graphics, all 1990), edited by Tom Mason. Contributor to anthologies, including Intro Eight, edited by George Garrett, Doubleday, 1977, and Midnight Journeys, edited by Davi Dee and Bill Allen, Ozark Triangle Press, 1995. Author of one-act play, Café Purgatory, produced at Heller Theater, Tulsa, OK, 1996; also writer and co-producer of film version, premiered at the Fort Worth Film Festival, TX, 1999. Scriptwriter for television, including Sourdough, Beefsteak and Beans, 1994, Still Swingin', 1994, and Hauntings across America, 1996. Frequent contributor to periodicals, including the horror-movie magazine Fangoria and the music tabloid Discoveries.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Two non-fiction movie guides with film historian Michael H. Price: The Big Book of Biker Flicks, for Hawk Publishing Group, and Forgotten Horrors 3, for Midnight Marquee Press, both due out in late 2003; also Ghost Band, a solo novel, for Hawk Publishing Group, due out in 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: From graphic novels and comic books to science fiction and scripts, John Wooley encompasses a range of genres in his writings. One of his areas of expertise is the famously awful 1950s science-fiction film Plan Nine from Outer Space; Wooley is the creator of a comic book series based on the film.

Two of Wooley's novels, Dark Within and Awash in the Blood, received critical notice. Dark Within begins with an elderly man, Lyle Cottrell, awakening from a disturbed sleep. Something is wrong on his property. Surveying the scene in the moonlight, Lyle comes upon a mysterious metal box, eight feet tall and shimmering. As he realizes this is no ordinary object, the box opens to reveal the figure of a man who calls himself Kard. Before anyone can ascertain that the name is an anagram of "Dark," the stranger has gained the confidence of the townsfolk, tempting them with promises of money and luck—but in reality feeding on their darkest fears and secrets. Boxes begin springing up all over town, as residents disappear. Wooley "conjures up a tale for the 21st Century" in Dark Within, said Patricia Jones in Critic's Corner. "It is a story that does not confine itself to one genre."

A dark tale of a different sort awaits readers of Wooley's Awash in the Blood. The Reverend Mo Johnston, a televangelist, is on vacation in Transylvania. In his hotel room, the preacher is attacked by a mysterious creature and ends up with two small puncture wounds in his neck. Convinced that he is in battle with Satan, Mo decides to capitalize on his notoriety by working the attack into his television appearances. "Mo's career soars," noted a Publishers Weekly contributor. But at the same time, the man of religion is increasingly drawn to a vampiric existence, seeking to feed on the blood of victims, eventually attacking even those dearest to him. Ironically, Mo's bite brings eternal life, something that his followers seem to crave. The protagonist's dilemma was recalled by Booklist contributor Kristine Huntley, who decided that "fans of vampire fiction should enjoy following the . . . trail of his downfall."

In a more mellow mood, Wooley co-authored Forever Lounge: A Laid-back Guide to the Languid Sounds of Lounge Music. "Lounge music is, simply, the soundtrack for an endless, evocative cocktail hour, where smart people chat easily with one another, making eye contact over the glistening rims of Martini glasses," Wooley writes in the volume. On a related topic, Wooley teamed up with veteran music manager Jim Halsey for How to Make It in the Music Business.

Wooley once told CA: "My grandmother, Mary M. Wooley, was a poet and writer (and fourth cousin of Lord Byron); she influenced me greatly. I grew up in the small town of Chelsea, Oklahoma, where I read a lot, played baseball, fished, and generally had a swell time. Somewhere along the line, I developed the conviction that cities and masses of people were inherently bad, or at least unfriendly while, conversely, the little map-dot towns and the people who inhabit them were the opposite. This admittedly romantic notion has prevailed with me to this day for better or worse, and much of my writing reflects this attitude.

"Although my published writing to this point is less than insignificant by comparison, I have been influenced by John Steinbeck, Booth Tarkington, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Nathanael West, and a couple of fine, unsung storytellers, William Lindsay Gresham and Robert Leslie Bellem.

"My talent was sharpened and my desire to write fired by the Creative Studies Division of the Central Oklahoma State University English department. There, under novelist Marilyn Harris, I developed my first novel and made the decision, once and for all, to stay with writing and devote my energies to it—even though I had wanted to be a writer, and had written, since childhood."

Wooley recently told CA: "In looking back over the things I told Contemporary Authors in the mid '80s, a dozen books and a thousand articles ago, I'm impressed by how full of myself I was. I may still be full of myself, but I think I've been down the writers' road long enough not to be so blatant about it. Now I know I'm just a writer, and the best thing I can do is keep on writing. When I made the committment to writing as a career, I knew everything there was to know about it. But the more I wrote, the less I knew, until now, a quarter of a century later, I know practically nothing about the craft or the art or anything else having to do with getting words down on paper. Just about the only thing I can tell people—and do, when I'm called upon to talk to writing classes or other groups—is something I learned during a particularly dark night of the soul, when I wondered if I'd ever sell anything again. It's a simple equation: You wear them down, or they wear you down. That's pretty much it."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Wooley, John, Thomas Conner, and Mark Brown, Forever Lounge: A Laid-back Price Guide to the Languid Sounds of Lounge Music, Antique Trader Books (Norfolk, VA), 1999.