Background

Dave Wolverton was born David John Wolverton on May 15, 1957, in Springfield, Oregon, United States. He was the fourth of six children. He lived in Oregon for the first 18 years of his life. His family was quite poor, so he worked as a farm laborer from the age of 8. When he was 11 his father opened a small meat company in Monroe, Oregon and he began working as a meat cutter by the age of 12.

Education

Early in his teens Dave Wolverton developed an interest in science, and would sometimes skip high school in order to sit in on college classes in biology at Oregon State University. At the age of sixteen, he wrote his first books - a field guide to the Mustelidae family of mammals and a book on the development of nuclear weaponry in the United States.

It was at about this time that Wolverton discovered his love for fiction when he read Tolkien’s masterpiece The Lord of the Rings. Soon afterward Dave began devouring fantasy and science fiction novels as fast as he could, enjoying the works of such authors as Ursula K. LeGuin, Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, Stephen Donaldson, and so on. After he exhausted his local libraries, he began making up his own fantasy stories and telling them to co-workers. He’d only been doing it for a month or two when one friend, Paul Toups, suggested, “Why don’t you take all of this stuff and put it in a book!” So the next day, Wolverton bought a used typewriter and went to work, writing the first ten chapters of a novel about a boy who goes to a school for wizards. Soon Wolverton discovered that writing was harder than it looked. He abandoned his first couple of novels halfway through, but he began studying how to write fiction and a lifelong passion began.

At the age of 18, Wolverton moved to Idaho and attended Ricks College (currently Brigham Young University-Idaho), then served for two years as a missionary in Chicago, Illinois. At that time, he wondered whether becoming a writer was a practical goal, so when he returned from his service as a missionary, he enrolled in Brigham Young University where he studied microbiology, planning to become either a physician or a genetic engineer. But his interest in writing wouldn’t die. He eventually realized that he wanted to write novels on the side, regardless of what he did for a living, so he began writing short stories. His first short story “The Making of Charlie Littlehorse,” won him a small prize at a university competition and was published in a student journal. After that, Wolverton began voraciously studying stories and submitting his work to magazines. He changed his major at the time, deciding to make writing and editing his life’s work. He set up his own coursework through the University Studies Program at school, hoping to prepare himself for a double life as a writer and editor. Through his program, he studied Modern Literature, Creative Writing, and Editing. The course was so successful that the university used it as a model for their English/Editing double major, and it was soon adopted by over a hundred other universities around the United States.

Career

Before becoming a writer Dave Wolverton worked variously as a farmer, trapper, meat cutter, grocery store manager, prison guard, missionary, bookkeeper, ice-cream maker, technical writer, and documentation department manager for a computer company.

Having decided to become a writer Dave Wolverton spent hours working on his writing every day and made some interesting breakthroughs as he studied the field of storytelling. In 1985 he developed the Stress Induction/Reduction Theory of Storytelling, which basically suggests that all forms of entertainment - storytelling, sports, and so on - serve as an emotional exercise for their audience with the end of releasing stress. Using some of these new theories, Dave penned several stories in rapid succession. At the end of 1986, he was rewarded for his efforts as these stories won first place in every contest that he entered.

In 1987 Wolverton won the International Writers of The Future Gold Award, the highest honor available to an amateur writer of science fiction and fantasy. His story, “On My Way to Paradise,” was written while he was quite ill with the onset of Epstein-Barr syndrome. He battled high fevers and extreme fatigue for over a month as he polished the story, gleaning ideas for it from lucid dreams caused by his feverish state. One of the judges from the contest, Robert Silverberg, was kind enough to recommend Wolverton to a number of editor friends in New York, and this caused some buzz as the awards ceremony neared. He was flown to the World Trade Center where the checks and awards were presented by such luminaries as Isaac Asimov and Mark Hamil. There, a number of editors from major publishers introduced themselves and asked Wolverton to submit a novel proposal. Within the week this led to a three-novel contract with Bantam books. Wolverton's first novel, On My Way to Paradise, hit #3 on the Locus Magazine science fiction and fantasy best-seller list, won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award as one of the outstanding science fiction novels of the year and catapulted Wolverton to prominence in the writing community. Dozens of books followed over the years. His first novel combined cyberpunk with Latin American magic realism, but Wolverton didn’t want to be limited to any particular type of fiction, so he followed his first book with a pair of adventure novels set in the far future on a world created by genetic paleobiologists. The first of the pair, called Serpent Catch, debuted the same month as Crichton’s Jurassic Park.

Wolverton first hit the New York Times best-seller list (at #7) with his fourth novel Star Wars: The Courtship of Princess Leia. He then went on to write The Golden Queen series, along with dozens of other books. His books were soon translated into more than twenty languages and were sold in over a hundred countries, while his readership climbed into the millions.

But Wolverton's work at that time was all in science fiction, and his first love-fantasy-was unfulfilled. Indeed, shortly after writing his first book and hitting the bestseller list, his editor at Bantam asked what he wanted to write next. “I’d like to write a big fantasy,” he suggested. But his editor said, “You’re a best-selling science fiction writer. Most people take twenty years to get where you are! We don’t want any fantasy from you.” So Wolverton began “easing into” fantasy, and after ten years as a professional novelist, Dave gave himself a birthday present and began writing his first big fantasy series, The Runelords.

In 1999 Wolverton set the Guinness Record for the world’s largest book signing with the science fiction novel A Very Strange Trip.

Writing as David Farland (The last name Farland comes from a great, great, great grandmother.), Wolverton was able to fulfill his dream of writing fantasy. He switched names to avoid confusing his science fiction fans since he was writing in different genres. He also felt that this would help with the positioning of his book since books listed under Wolverton typically get shelved down on the floor. He soon became an international best-selling fantasy writer with over a dozen books on the stands and is one of very few authors to be a New York Times bestseller under more than one name. In England he has been promoted as “The New King of Fantasy,” and in the United States, his books have hit #1 positions on several bestseller lists, including the science fiction and fantasy bestseller lists for both the Walden’s and the Barnes and Noble bookstore chains. The third book in the Runelords series hit the New York Times Bestseller list.

Beginning in 2005 Wolverton began publishing his bestselling Ravenspell books for middle-grade readers, and he published two more books in this series in 2007 and 2011.

In 1998 Dave began working part-time to help create video games at Saffire studios. For example, he helped design the storyline, monsters, and weapons for StarCraft’s Broodwar, which won rave reviews in gaming magazines and was a #1 international bestseller in 1999. He also wrote the story and script for Xena: the Talisman of Fate, which hit high on the Nintendo 64 bestseller list at Christmas in 1999, and Dave went on to script several other games. He had lots of fun but found that the job didn’t pay particularly well.

At university, Wolverton studied editing, modern literature, and writing, and was hired as an undergraduate to help professors raise their books and articles to publishable standards. He also worked for several years as a writer and editor in the computer industry for major corporations like Novell and WICAT.

In 1991 Wolverton was invited to act as a judge for the Writers of The Future Contest, the world’s largest science fiction and fantasy writing contest for new authors, and was soon promoted to the position of Coordinating Judge. As Coordinating Judge he acted as first reader-screening thousands of stories over the next eight years. He also edited the anthologies, taught writing courses to the winners, and made numerous personal appearances-often at DragonCon in Atlanta, where he headed up the writing track for a few years.

In 1999 Wolverton was invited to teach the science fiction and fantasy writing at Brigham Young University, and over the years he has taught dozens of writing seminars around the United States and Canada and appeared at hundreds of conventions. Over the years, many of his students have gone on to publish with tremendous success, including New York Times Bestsellers like Stephanie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Jessica Day George, James Dashner, and Dan Wells.

Wolverton has also worked as something of an acquisitions consultant for publishers. In 1992 and 1993 he worked for Gibb-Smith publishers, helping them find manuscripts for children’s books, and he recently accepted a similar position for Tor books. In this capacity, he will recommend manuscripts for publication to the president of the company, so as he judges contests and teaches his writing workshops, Dave keeps an eye out for talented new writers. Not willing to give up on teaching completely, Wolverton writes an advice column called, “David Farland’s Kick in the Pants.”

Achievements

• Dave Wolverton is an award-winning, international bestselling author with over 50 novels in print. He has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for “Best Novel in the English Language” for his science fiction novel On My Way to Paradise, the Whitney Award for “Best Novel of the Year” for his historical novel In the Company of Angels, and many more awards for his work. He is best known for his New York Times bestselling fantasy series The Runelords. He set the Guinness World Record for the largest single-author, single-book signing.
  
  Dave Wolverton has been hailed as “The wizard of storytelling” and his work has been called “compelling,” “engrossing,” “powerful,” “profound,” and “ultimately life-changing.”

Works

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  • The Golden Queen

    (When Gallen O’Day is hired as a bodyguard to escort a you...)

    1994
  • Beyond The Gate

    (When Gallen O’Day is hired as a bodyguard to escort a you...)

    1995
  • Million Dollar Outlines

    (Bestselling author David Farland has taught dozens of wri...)

    2013
  • Barbarians

    (Long before the Runelords ruled Mystarria, a young Inkarr...)

    2013
  • Freaky Fly Day

    (After saving Oregon from a nuclear crisis and revealing t...)

    2011
  • Wizard of Ooze

    (When the evil worm lord Sebaceous Ooze uses his magical s...)

    2007
  • The Courtship of Princess Leia

    (Seeking rich, powerful allies to bring into the Rebel All...)

    1994
  • Flight of the Phoenix

    (When Alex O’Connell returns to Egypt to resume his traini...)

    2001
  • Death Toll

    (When Darcy's neighbor Sonny tied himself to an engine blo...)

    2018
  • Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing

    (All successful writers use resonance to enhance their sto...)

    2012
  • Daily Meditations: Writer Tips for 100 Days

    (In this book, best-selling author and acclaimed writing i...)

    2014
  • The Runelords

    (The first book of the saga of The Runelords Young Prince ...)

    1998
  • The Hidden Past

    (The book ties into the Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom...)

    1999
  • Path of the Hero

    (A vast storehouse of dinosaurs and other extinct species,...)

    1993
  • Chaosbound

    (The world of the Runelords has been combined by magic wit...)

    2009
  • Lords of the Seventh Swarm

    (Blasters flare, evil aliens maraud and salvation comes to...)

    1997
  • Wizardborn

    (Book Three of The Runelords Wizardborn continues the stor...)

    2001
  • Ashes and Starlight

    (Young Dval managed to save young Averan, along with his o...)

    2016
  • The Wyrmling Horde

    (The Saga of the Runelords is written in the finest tradit...)

    2008
  • Brotherhood of the Wolf

    (Volume Two of The Runelords Raj Ahtan, ruler of Indhopal,...)

    1999
  • Serpent Catch

    (In order to save his homeland, Tull must find the great s...)

    1991
  • Worldbinder

    (After the events of Sons of the Oak, Fallion, and Jaz, th...)

    2007
  • Ship of Fools

    (When a run-in with highwaymen leave them poor, Erstwhyle,...)

    2016
  • The Rising Force

    (The first volume in a two-part series, this story tells o...)

    1999
  • In the Company of Angels

    (Whitney Award Winner for "Best Novel of the Year" The Wil...)

    2009
  • The Lair of Bones

    (Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as ...)

    2003
  • Sons of the Oak

    (Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as ...)

    2004
  • Million Dollar Book Signings

    (Million Dollar Book Signings will tell you everything you...)

    2014
  • Blockbuster Book Signings

    (Blockbuster Book Signings will tell you everything you ne...)

    2013
  • The Mummy Chronicles Revenge of the Scorpion King

    (It's 1937 and twelve-year-old Alex O'Connel is living in ...)

    2001
  • NaNoWriMo Inspirations

    (NaNoWriMo Inspirations will help you through your 30-day ...)

    2013
  • Heart of the Pharaoh

    (Cleopatra's tomb has been discovered and the Germans are ...)

    2001
  • Nightingale

    (Some people sing at night to drive back the darkness. Oth...)

    2012
  • Of Mice and Magic

    (More than anything, Benjamin Ravenspell wants a pet. But ...)

    2005
  • A Very Strange Trip

    (Boldly go to times where no one has gone before. While tr...)

    1999
  • The Curse of the Nile

    (A cursed mummy looking for revenge. Alex O’Connell return...)

    2001
  • On My Way to Paradise

    (Winner of the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award The powerful ...)

    1989
  • War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches

    (In the spirit of H.G. Wells's classic tale of Martian inv...)

    2013
  • The Hunt for Anakin Skywalker 2000
  • Trouble on Tatooine 2000
  • A Tale of Tales 2012

Religion

Dave Wolverton was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his teens. His parents were dissatisfied and against this decision.

Views

Quotations: "I sat down when I was 13 and made up my rules of living. I decided if I was going to be a happy person, these were things I was going to do. That included avoiding drugs and alcohol and not smoking and refraining from sexual activity until I was married. I sort of became this monastic type of kid pretty young."

"Unable to explore setting, conflict, characters or themes in their fiction, the mainstreamers wrote more and more eloquently about nothing at all."

"We all become lost children at one time or another.When no one else can find us, we must find ourselves."

Membership

• 

  Coordinating Judge, Editor and First Reader

  Writers of the Future Contest Committee , United States

Interests

• Writers

  John R. R. Tolkien, Ursula K. LeGuin, Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, Stephen Donaldson

Connections

Dave Wolverton lives in St. George, Utah with his wife and five children.

Acquaintance:

Isaac Asimov

Acquaintance:

Mark Hamill

pupil:

Stephanie Meyer

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166 This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.
  1998