D. J. Butler


David John Butler is an American speculative fiction author. His epic flintlock fantasy novel Witchy Winter won the 2018 AML Award for Best Novel and the 2018 Whitney Award for Best Speculative Fiction. Both Witchy Eye and Witchy Winter were finalists for the Dragon Award in 2017 and 2018, and Witchy Eye was a preliminary nominee for the Gemmell Morningstar Award.

Life and career

D.J. Butler attended the New York University School of Law, earning his Juris Doctor in 1999. He spent over a decade working as a lawyer for companies including Micron Technology before opening an independent firm in 2010. He is employed as a corporate trainer, using his skills as a storyteller to educate business people. He began pursuing his childhood dream of being an author in 2010. His steampunk Western novel City of Saints was a 2012 Whitney Award finalist in the speculative fiction category. He also worked as acquisitions editor for WordFire Press.
In 2017, Baen published the first of Butler's American epic flintlock fantasy series, Witchy Eye, set in an alternate 1815 America. It was a finalist for a Dragon Award in 2017 and was a preliminary nominee for a Gemmell Morningstar Award in 2018. The second book in the series, Witchy Winter, won the 2018 AML Award for Best Novel, the 2018 Whitney Award for Best Speculative Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2018 Dragon Award for Best Alternate History Novel.

The Buza System

Alternate history Civil War era featuring secret agents Samuel Clemens and Edgar Allan Poe trying to obtain the plans for airship and ray gun technology.
  1. Liahona
  2. Deseret
  3. Timpanogos
  4. Teancum
An omnibus, collecting all four novels, was also published:
A clockwork boy, Charlie Pondicherry, has various adventures. This is a middle grade series.
Two omnibuses collect the first six novels:
Alternate history flintlock fantasy set in the early 1800s North America.

Witchy Eye trology

Butler has received the following awards and honors:
YearOrganizationAward title,
Category		WorkResultRefs
2012StorymakersWhitney Award,
Best Speculative Fiction		City of Saints
2016Association for Mormon LettersAML Award,
Middle Grade Novel		The Kidnap Plot
2017Dragon ConDragon Award,
Best Alternate History Novel		Witchy Eye
2018DGLAGemmell Award,
Morningstar Award		Witchy Eye
2018Association for Mormon LettersAML Award,
Novel		Witchy Winter
2018Dragon ConDragon Award,
Best Alternate History Novel		Witchy Winter
2018StorymakersWhitney Award,
Best Speculative Fiction		Witchy Winter
2019Association for Mormon LettersAML Award,
Novel		The Cunning Man