James Lowder

Early life and education

Lowder graduated from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School in 1981 and was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 1991. In 1985 he graduated from Marquette University with an honors BA in English and History, and he graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1999, with a Masters in Literary Studies.

Career

His earliest novels were part of the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft shared universe book lines, but beginning in the late 1990s he turned his attention more often to creator-owned projects. His novels include Prince of Lies, The Ring of Winter, and Spectre of the Black Rose (the latter with Voronica Whitney-Robinson), and his short fiction has appeared in such anthologies such as Shadows Over Baker Street, Truth Until Paradox, and Historical Hauntings. Some of his short stories have been cited in the honorable mention list of the annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. He was an Origins Award finalist in the Best Short Fiction category for his 2003 novella, "The Night Chicago Died", a story that featured the debut of his mystery man character, The Corpse. His novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

As an editor, Lowder directed several best-selling book lines for TSR, Inc. in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, and Dark Sun. In 1999, Peter Corless brought Lowder in to oversee the Pendragon fiction line for Green Knight Publishing; Lowder continued to reprint older Athurian works and also produced the original short story collections The Doom of Camelot (2000) and Legends of the Pendragon (2002) and the original novel Exiled from Camelot (2001). He served as executive editor for Green Knight Publishing's line of Arthurian fiction — the Pendragon fiction series — and as a consulting editor for CDS Books on their City of Heroes novels. Lowder has edited more than a dozen anthologies, with subjects ranging from King Arthur to superheroes to zombies. He has won several Origins Awards and an ENnie Award, and been shortlisted for an International Horror Guild Award for these projects. Though some of these anthologies have been published in connection with role-playing game product lines, they often contain only creator-copyrighted stories. This makes them unusual, as game publishers frequently insist on work for hire contracts for such projects. Lowder edited a set of zombie anthologies based on the All Flesh Must Be Eaten game, beginning with The Book of All Flesh (2001); these were the first fiction books from Eden Studios. His final short story collection for the series was The Book of Final Flesh (2003). Lowder edited a 2003 anthology of short stories based on the Silver Age Sentinels game from Guardians of Order. He also worked on Astounding Hero Tales (2007) for Hero Games and Worlds of their Own (2008) for Paizo Publishing. Lowder produced Hobby Games: The 100 Best (2007) and Family Games: The 100 Best (2010) for Green Ronin Publishing.

In May, 2017, Chaosium appointed Lowder executive editor of their fiction line. Chaosium President Rick Meints commented on the hire: “James embodies that magic combination of wisdom and enthusiasm. Knowing his craft inside and out, he brings his advocacy and integrity to the table at every turn. Having him relaunch our fiction line is a ‘the stars are right’ moment.” Lowder had previously served as a consultant for Chaosium, helping the company and freelancers resolve payment and contract problems with past fiction projects.

Lowder also works in comic books. He has penned scripts for several companies, including Image, DC, Devil's Due, and Desperado. A Ravenloft comic by Lowder was in the works before DC decided to end its relationship with TSR. His short work "Lost Loves", from the Moonstone Monsters: Demons anthology, was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award in 2004 for Best Illustrated Narrative. He contributed as a writer and consulting editor to the Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons comic book series, published by Devil's Due. He became the editor for the monthly series Hack/Slash with issue #25 and continued with the series when it moved from Devil's Due to Image. His pulp hero serial "The Corpse: Orphans of the Air" ran as an occasional back-up in Hack/Slash, starting in 2011.

Lowder's critical essays and film and book reviews have appeared in such publications as Amazing Stories and Polyhedron, the latter of which featured his long-running video review column "Into the Dark" from 1991 to 1994. He has written support material for various role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu.

In the media

Beginning in 2010, Lowder contributed to an annual "Games to Gift" holiday segment for the show "Lake Effect" on WUWM, Milwaukee Public Radio. He appeared as himself in episode 302 ("Man Beasts") on the television series Weird or What?, discussing the history of werewolf lore and the Beast of Bray Road. Lowder also served as a puppeteer for the low budget zombie puppet musical Misfit Heights (2012).

Novels

Short Fiction

Comic Book Scripts

Anthologies (as editor)

Awards and honors