Dan Wells (author)


Daniel Andrew Wells is an American horror and science fiction author. He is noted for his John Cleaver series, Mirador series, and New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence. His first published novel I Am Not a Serial Killer became a major motion picture in 2016. He currently co-hosts Writing Excuses, a podcast that answers writing-related questions. He is a Utah native and a graduate of Brigham Young University.

Early life

Dan Wells spent his childhood in Salt Lake City, Utah and began writing from a young age. He wrote his first stories based on the Choose Your Own Adventure series when he was in second grade. He has cited Where the Wild Things Are as one of his first influences. He was also exposed to science fiction and fantasy at a young age, particularly to titles such as The Hobbit and Star Wars. He frequented the library and loved to read. In addition to sci-fi and fantasy novels, he read classics, including those from French and Russian literature. He also enjoyed writing scripts, songs, poetry, and more as a child. In high school, Wells wrote a series of comic books, novellas, and a serial. He began to take writing more seriously in college, finishing his first serious novel when he was 22. He attended Brigham Young University, where he studied English and anthropology and met his wife, Dawn. Wells also worked on Leading Edge, a sci-fi magazine, and began writing game reviews; he has described himself as a "rabid gamer." He worked as a corporate writer for NuSkin before becoming a published novelist. He is the brother of author Robison Wells. He has six children. He has lived in Utah, Mexico, and Germany.

Career

Wells's debut novel, I Am Not a Serial Killer, was published in 2009. It has been printed in English, Spanish, French, German, and Russian. Wells did extensive research to make the series protagonist, John Cleaver, appear genuine. His fascination with serial killer predictors also inspired him to write the novel. In 2016, it was adapted into a film, starring Max Records and Christopher Lloyd. Wells wrote a sequel, Mr. Monster, which was published by Tor Books in 2010. In 2011 his third installment to the John Cleaver series, I Don't Want to Kill You, was published. Wells continued John Cleaver's story with a second trilogy of books, in which the protagonist changes and develops. In 2016, Wells told Deseret News that the fifth book in the series, Over Your Dead Body, was one of the most challenging to write. Some of Wells's novels feature main characters with mental health issues. In Serial Killer, John Cleaver is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, and the protagonist of The Hollow City suffers from schizophrenia.|alt=|254x254pxWells expanded into Young Adult Dystopia with his Partials Sequence in 2012. The series appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list in 2014. He followed up in 2016 with a Young Adult science fiction novel, Bluescreen, set in Los Angeles in the year 2050. He continued this Mirador series with Ones and Zeroes in 2017 and Active Memory in 2018. His most recent release is a series of middle-grade sci-fi audiobooks, Zero G and Dragon Planet.
Wells is one of the four authors who regularly host the podcast Writing Excuses. Wells was a writer for the TV show Extinct and wrote his own stage play, "A Night of Blacker Darkness."

Critical reception

Horror writer F. Paul Wilson described I Am Not a Serial Killer as a "dazzling, unputdownable debut" with a protagonist "as chilling as he is endearing." Author Jack Heath praised Wells's ability to create a "sympathetic villain" in Serial Killer. Ryan Lawler of Fantasy Book Review complimented Wells's world building in his Partials novels, but commented that the characters lacked development. National Post reviewer Catherine Gao wrote of Partials, "Wells has done an excellent job of tackling a complicated genre by revamping a generic idea by adding his original twist." School Library Journal described his novel Bluescreen as "exciting and innovative." A School Library Journal review of Ones and Zeroes complimented Wells's complex and diverse characters, plausible dystopian plot, and understandable descriptions of future technology.
In 2011, Wells was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His novella, The Butcher of Khardov, received a nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 2014. His podcast Writing Excuses has won a Hugo Award and three Parsec Awards.

John Wayne Cleaver series

''Apocalypse Guard'' series

The Apocalypse Guard trilogy, "set in a world parallel to that of the Reckoners ", was announced by Brandon Sanderson on March 1, 2016. The outlining for the series was nearing completion at the end of December 2016. The project was put on hold in November 2017. On February 20, 2018, Wells tweeted that he would be co-writing the series with Sanderson.