Tad Williams

{{Short description|American fantasy and science fiction writer}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Tad Williams

| image = Tad Williams (2019).jpg

| alt = Tad Williams

| caption = Tad Williams (2019)

| birth_name = Robert Paul Williams

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1957|03|14}}

| birth_place = San Jose, California, U.S.

| occupation = Storyteller,{{cite web|last=Gor|first=Judith|title=Interview with Tad Williams (26.07.2008)|url=http://www.literatopia.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390:tad-williams-26072008&catid=48:interviews&Itemid=85|publisher=Literatopia.de|access-date=1 August 2013}} novelist, short story writer, comics writer and essayist

| nationality = American

| genre = Post-modernism{{cite web|last=Golder|first=Dave|title=Profile: Tad Williams|url=http://www.sfx.co.uk/1998/09/25/sfx-issue-42/#null|publisher=SFX Issue42, 25 September 1998|access-date=1 August 2013}}
High fantasy
Urban fantasy
Dark fantasy
Science fiction
Horror fiction

| notableworks =Tailchaser's Song

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Otherland

Shadowmarch

| spouse = Deborah Beale

| website = {{URL|www.tadwilliams.com}}

}}

Robert Paul "Tad" Williams (born March 13, 1957) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer. He is the author of the multivolume Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, Otherland series, Shadowmarch series, and The Bobby Dollar series, as well as the standalone novels Tailchaser's Song and The War of the Flowers. Most recently, Williams published The Last King of Osten Ard series, with its final novel The Navigator's Children being published in 2024.{{Cite web |last=Keith |first=Olaf |date=2023-05-18 |title=Forthcoming Books [updated] {{!}} Tad Williams |url=https://www.tadwilliams.com/2023/05/book-news-forthcoming/ |access-date=2023-08-04 |language=en-US}} More than 17 million copies of Williams' works have been sold.Lealos, Shawn S. (2011). "Exclusive art released from upcoming 'Tailchaser's Song' animated adaptation".

Williams's work in comics includes a six issue mini-series for DC Comics called The Next. He also wrote Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis issue #50 to #57. Other comic work includes Mirrorworld: Rain and The Helmet of Fate: Ibis the Invincible #1 (DC).

Williams is collaborating on a series of young-adult books with his wife, Deborah Beale, called The Ordinary Farm Adventures. The first two books in the series are The Dragons of Ordinary Farm and The Secrets of Ordinary Farm. The in-progress third book is under the current title The Heirs of Ordinary Farm and does not have a release date yet.

Early life and career

Robert Paul "Tad" Williams was born in San Jose, California, on March 14, 1957.{{cite web|title=Tad Williams|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/williams_tad|publisher=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{Cite web |last=locusmag |date=July 28, 2009 |orig-date=July 28, 2009 |title=Tad Williams: Things Go Away, Things Come Back |url=https://locusmag.com/2009/07/tad-williams-things-go-away-things-come-back/ |access-date=November 6, 2024 |website=Locus Online |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Sentinel |first=Wallace Baine {{!}} Santa Cruz |date=July 2, 2017 |orig-date=July 2, 2017 |title=Santa Cruz County Stories: Writer Tad Williams dreams up epic fantasies from his home base in the Soquel hills |url=https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2017/07/02/santa-cruz-county-stories-writer-tad-williams-dreams-up-epic-fantasies-from-his-home-base-in-the-soquel-hills/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241106231129/https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2017/07/02/santa-cruz-county-stories-writer-tad-williams-dreams-up-epic-fantasies-from-his-home-base-in-the-soquel-hills/ |archive-date=November 6, 2024 |access-date=November 6, 2024 |website=Santa Cruz Sentinel |language=en-US}} He grew up in Palo Alto, the town that grew up around Stanford University. He attended Palo Alto Senior High School.{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Tad|title=RITE: Short Work|year=2006|publisher=Subterranean Press|location=Michigan|isbn=978-159606-066-1}} His family was close, and he and his brothers were always encouraged in their creativity.{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Tad|title=About|url=http://www.tadwilliams.com/about/|publisher=Official website|access-date=1 August 2013}} His mother gave him the nickname "Tad" after the young characters in Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo.{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Tad|title=Tad Williams (Facebook)|url=https://www.facebook.com/tad.williams/posts/10201784003392001?comment_id=6380988&offset=0&total_comments=9 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/631654146/10201784003392001 |archive-date=2022-02-26 |url-access=limited|publisher=Facebook author page|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cbignore}} The semi-autobiographical character Pogo Cashman, who appears in some of his stories, is a reference to the nickname.{{cite web|last=Ormsby|first=Stephen C.|title=Interview with Tad Williams on The Dirty Streets of Heaven|url=http://stephenormsby.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/tad-williams-20-august/|publisher=Stephen Ormsby (20 August 2012).|access-date=1 August 2013}}

Before becoming a full time fiction author Williams held many jobs including delivering newspapers, food service, DJ and station music director for college radio station KFJC, shoe sales, branch manager of a financial institution, writing for the TheatreWorks company and drawing military manuals.{{cite web|title=Tad Williams in Stuttgart (4)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIVH9YRaSdI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/pIVH9YRaSdI |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|publisher=YouTube (5:29), July 15, 2013|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cbignore}}

Williams also worked for Apple, developing an interest in interactive multi-media. He and his colleague Andrew Harris created a company, Telemorphix, in order to produce it. The result was "M. Jack Steckel's 21st Century Vaudeville", which was broadcast on San Francisco Bay Area local TV in 1992 and 1993.{{cite web|title=Links|url=http://www.digitaltimewarp.com/Links.html|publisher=Digital Time Warp|access-date=16 August 2013}}{{cite web|title=A List of Programming with Interactive Television in 2002 and Earlier|url=http://www.itvdictionary.com/interactive_television_enhanced_tv_etv_itv_shows.html|publisher=ITV Dictionary.|access-date=16 August 2013}}{{cite web|last=Bickelhaupt|first=Susan|title=The future is now on Vaudeville|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8250142.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011162724/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8250142.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 October 2013|publisher=The Boston Globe|date=October 20, 1993|access-date=16 August 2013}}

In addition, he created "Valley Vision," a TV series concept, a show about a local TV station. A pilot was shot featuring several people who would go on to become Bay Area acting alumni, including Greg Proops, Mike McShane, Joan Mankin, Marga Gomez and several members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.{{cite web|title=Liquid Radio Players|url=http://www.liquidradioplayers.com/guests/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101140352/http://www.liquidradioplayers.com/guests/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=1 January 2013|publisher=Liquidradioplayers.com|access-date=5 September 2013}}{{cite web|title=Fly Little Gimcracks|url=http://www.tadwilliams.com/2012/08/fly-little-gimcracks/|publisher=Official website|access-date=1 August 2013}}

In his mid twenties, he turned to writing and submitted the manuscript of his novel Tailchaser's Song to DAW Books. To get his publishers to look at his first manuscript he spun a story about needing a replacement copy because his had been destroyed. It worked.{{cite magazine|last=Geek's Guide to the Galaxy|title=Why Dirty Streets of Heaven Writer Tad Williams Isn't Going to Hell ... Probably|url=https://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/09/geeks-guide-tad-williams/all/|magazine=Wired|date=19 September 2012|access-date=1 August 2013}} DAW Books liked it and published it, beginning a long association that continues to this day. Williams continued working various jobs for a few more years, including three years from 1987 to 1990 as a technical writer at Apple Computer's Knowledge Engineering Department, taking problem-solving field material from engineers and turning it into research articles{{cite web|title=Author Interview - Tad Williams|url=http://www.bookwormblues.net/2012/09/19/author-interview-tad-williams/|publisher=Bookworm Blues|date=19 September 2012|access-date=1 August 2013}} (which led, in part, to the Otherland books), before making fiction writing his full-time career.

Writing and influences

Writing long stories was an early hallmark for Williams. "I remember specifically one 'folktale' assignment when I was thirteen that was supposed to be three pages, and I wound up writing a seventeen-page sword-and-sorcery epic with illustrations, etc." His first attempt at professional writing was "a rather awful science-fiction screenplay called The Sad Machines that I've never shown to anyone outside my family, I think. The only interesting thing about it now is that its main character, Ishmael Parks, was a definite precursor to Simon in the Osten Ard books."{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Tad|title=Thanks to that imaginary cat|url=http://www.tadwilliams.com/books/tailchasers-song/thanks-to-that-imaginary-cat/|publisher=Official website|access-date=1 August 2013}}

Williams traces his interest in the science fiction and fantasy genre back to the books his mother read to him when he was a child, and that he later read to himself: E. Nesbit, The Wind in the Willows, and of course Tolkien.{{cite web|last=Schmidt|first=Bryan Thomas|title=A Chat With Author Tad Williams|url=http://www.graspingforthewind.com/2012/03/15/sffwrtcht-a-chat-with-author-tad-williams/|publisher=Grasping for the Wind (March 15, 2012)|access-date=1 August 2013}}

{{cquote|The biggest single influence on me was reading The Lord of the Rings when I was about eleven.{{cite web|last=Centorcelli|first=Kristin|title=Interview: Tad Williams, author of The Dirty Streets of Heaven|url=http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/09/interview-giveaway-tad-williams-author-of-the-dirty-streets-of-heaven.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120917052854/http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/09/interview-giveaway-tad-williams-author-of-the-dirty-streets-of-heaven.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=September 17, 2012|publisher=My Bookish Ways (13 September 2012).|access-date=1 August 2013}} I think it was the idea of created worlds and imaginary history that grabbed me. I was also very influenced by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's early Marvel Comics and by Dickens. And later, Gravity's Rainbow knocked my socks off and made me want to be a grown-up writer. Art, theatre and music are a whole different set of influences. Jason and the Argonauts, The Tin Drum, and Performance all got into my brain, just for instance.{{cite web|last=Purcell|first=John|title=Tad Williams, bestselling author of The Dirty Streets of Heaven and many more, answers Ten Terrifying Questions|url=http://blog.booktopia.com.au/2012/08/31/tad-williams-bestselling-author-of-the-dirty-streets-of-heaven-and-many-more-answers-ten-terrifying-questions/|publisher=Booktopia Blog (31 August 2012).|access-date=1 August 2013}}}}

A long list of authors have influenced and inspired Williams's work: Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin, Hunter S. Thompson, Thomas Pynchon, J. D. Salinger, William Butler Yeats, Wallace Stevens, Barbara Tuchman, Philip K. Dick, Ruth Rendell, James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon), Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges, Patrick O'Brian, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), A. A. Milne, J. J. Norwich, Stephen Jay Gould, John Updike, Thomas Berger, Raymond Chandler, William Shakespeare, and James Thurber.{{cite web|last=William|first=Peter|title=Interview - Tad Williams|url=http://speculativebookreview.blogspot.com/2010/03/interview-tad-williams.html|publisher=Speculative Book Review, 26 March 2010|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cite web|last=Valentinelli|first=Monica|title=Interview with Fantasy Author Tad Williams|url=http://www.flamesrising.com/interview-tad-williams/|publisher=Flames Rising dot com (28 April 2008).|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cite web|last=Wanchoo|first=Mihir|title=Interview with Tad Williams|url=http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2010/06/interview-with-tad-williams.html|publisher=Fantasy Book Critic (10 June 2010).|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cite web|last=Weston|first=Andrew P.|title=Star Guest Interview - November 2012|url=http://andrewpweston.blogspot.com/2012/11/star-guest-interview-november-2012-hi.html?spref=fb|publisher=Andrew P. Weston (1 November 2012).|access-date=1 August 2013}}

Williams has also had an influence on other authors in his genre. His Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series was one of the works that inspired George R. R. Martin to write A Song of Ice and Fire. "I read Tad and was impressed by him, but the imitators that followed—well, fantasy got a bad rep for being very formulaic and ritual. And I read The Dragonbone Chair and said, 'My god, they can do something with this form,' and it's Tad doing it. It's one of my favorite fantasy series."{{cite web|title=Redwood City Signing|url=http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/5527/|publisher=The Citadel (July 27, 2011)|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cite web|author1=Trendacosta, K. |author2=Anders, C. J. |name-list-style=amp |title=10 Sources That Inspired Game of Thrones' Dark Storytelling|url=http://io9.com/10-sources-that-george-r-r-martin-borrowed-from-for-ic-511679817|publisher=io9 (06 June 2013).|access-date=1 August 2013}} Martin incorporated a nod to Williams in A Game of Thrones with "House Willum": The only members of the house mentioned are Lord Willum and his two sons, Josua and Elyas, a reference to the royal brothers in The Dragonbone Chair.{{cite web|title=House Willum (Heraldry)|url=http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Heraldry/Entry/767/|publisher=Westeros.org|access-date=1 August 2013}}

In "Tad Williams: The American Tolkien?" Ash Silverlock observes that "echoes of Williams's work" can be seen in the works of Robin Hobb, Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan.{{cite web|last=Silverlock|first=Ash|title=Tad Williams: The American Tolkien?|url=http://ashsilverlock.WordPress.com/2011/12/01/tad-williams-the-american-tolkien/|publisher=Fabulous Realms (December 1, 2011).|access-date=1 August 2013}} Blake Charlton, Christopher Paolini, and Patrick Rothfuss have also indicated they've been inspired by Williams.{{cite web|author1=Adams, John Joseph |author2=Kirtley, David Barr |name-list-style=amp |title=GGG-008: Magic! Medicine! Fantic Episy! (Guest: Blake Charlton)|url=http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/02/the-geeks-guide-to-the-galaxy-podcast-episode-8-episode-8-magic-medicine-fantic-episy|publisher=Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Podcast (22 February 2010)|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cite web|title=Christopher Paolini and Tad Williams: Author One-on-One|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000637861|publisher=Amazon.com.|access-date=1 August 2013}}{{cite web|last=Rothfuss|first=Patrick|title=Patrick Rothfuss's Reviews - The Dirty Streets of Heaven|url=http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/351217386|publisher=Goodreads.com|access-date=1 August 2013}}

Family life

Williams and his wife and partner Deborah Beale live in Northern California with their two children and "far more cats, dogs, turtles, pet ants and banana slugs than they can count."

Works

References

External links

[http://www.tadwilliams.com Tad Williams's US website]
[http://www.sffworld.com/interview/106p0.html Interview (several) with Tad Williams] at [http://www.sffworld.com SFFWorld.com]
{{isfdb name|id=203|name=Tad Williams}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20081216154311/http://www.yourmomsbasement.com/archives/2006/07/interview_tad_w.html#more Interview: Tad Williams - The Next] by Rajan Khanna, July 2006.
[http://www.fantasyliterature.com/williamstad.html Book Reviews at FantasyLiterature.com]
[http://www.flamesrising.com/interview-tad-williams Interview with Fantasy Author Tad Williams] at FlamesRising.com (April '08)
[http://michaelaventrella.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/interview-with-ny-times-bestselling-author-tad-williams Interview] with Michael A. Ventrella, October '09
[http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theoneringnet/2010/03/28/theoneringnet-radio-show-episode-13 Interview] at TheOneRing.net, March 2010