A.W. Hill
Encyclopedia
A.W. Hill is an American writer of speculative fiction
and mystery. He grew up in the Midwest but began writing under the influence of Southern California and has been linked by novelist/essayist Alan Rifkin
to the tradition of "California fabulist literature." Hill has published three literary thrillers featuring Los Angeles cult investigator Stephan Raszer (Stee-vun Ray-zer), a tracker of missing persons and an expert in emerging religions in the present age of apocalypse
. Raszer's preoccupation, as well as his author's, is in "what draws otherwise rational people to believe in unbelievable things."
Hill currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Valerie, and son, Nathanael, and directs the graduate program in Music Composition for the Screen at Columbia College Chicago
. He has two daughters, Olivia and Andrea, from a previous marriage. He is a former studio music executive, film music producer, and won a Grammy Award as producer of the Best Musical Album for Children in 2000. He received his BFA in Film from Tisch School of the Arts
at New York University, where he studied screenwriting with Martin Scorsese collaborator Mardik Martin
.
In 2003, Hill met Dorris Halsey, then 77, who had been literary agent for, among others, Aldous Huxley
, Henry Miller
, Upton Sinclair
, and Ben Hecht
. In Halsey and her younger partner and protege, Kimberley Cameron, Hill found champions for both his fiction and his screenwriting work. Halsey took on her "first new client in years" and introduced the writer to those in her circle, including Dr. Mani Lal Bhaumik
, with whom Hill developed the memoir Code Name God, and Laura Huxley
, with whom he briefly collaborated on a film adaptation of her late husband's novel, The Island. Halsey died in 2006, and Cameron now helms the Reece Halsey Agency.
that claimed the legacy of the Knights Templar
and fifty-three lives. Initially published in hardcover in 2001, Enoch's Portal anticipated the pop cultural tsunami of The Da Vinci Code by finding grist for modern myth in the legend of The Priory of Sion. But where Dan Brown makes his revelations explicit, Hill's hero Raszer walks the mean streets of Los Angeles and Old Prague in a dense fog of deliberate, riddling, and for some critics, maddening obscurity. The book was optioned in manuscript by Paramount Pictures and assigned to cult director Alex Proyas
, who developed two scripts before abandoning it to make "I,Robot.".
Five years later, Hill followed with the second installment of the Stephan Raszer series, The Last Days Of Madame Rey, a tarot
reading in the form of a mystery novel, or a mystery novel in the form of a tarot reading, with acknowledged literary debts to writers from Jules Verne
to H. Rider Haggard
to Jorge Borges to Wilhelm Reich
. The third and perhaps final installment in the series arrived in June 2009 with Nowhere-Land, a Sufi legend played out as a role-playing game
in the imagined reality of a metastasizing Mideast war and the plot to broker a bitter peace through a revival of Hassan-i Sabbah's Cult of the Assassins. Nowhere-Land also introduces the character of the chimerical CIA agent Philby Greenstreet
.
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...
and mystery. He grew up in the Midwest but began writing under the influence of Southern California and has been linked by novelist/essayist Alan Rifkin
Alan Rifkin
Alan Rifkin is a former contributing editor of Details magazine. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Premiere, L.A. Weekly, Buzz and The Quarterly. His first book, Signal Hill, was a finalist for the 2004 Southern California Booksellers Award in Fiction. He was also a finalist...
to the tradition of "California fabulist literature." Hill has published three literary thrillers featuring Los Angeles cult investigator Stephan Raszer (Stee-vun Ray-zer), a tracker of missing persons and an expert in emerging religions in the present age of apocalypse
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
. Raszer's preoccupation, as well as his author's, is in "what draws otherwise rational people to believe in unbelievable things."
Hill currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Valerie, and son, Nathanael, and directs the graduate program in Music Composition for the Screen at Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
. He has two daughters, Olivia and Andrea, from a previous marriage. He is a former studio music executive, film music producer, and won a Grammy Award as producer of the Best Musical Album for Children in 2000. He received his BFA in Film from Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
at New York University, where he studied screenwriting with Martin Scorsese collaborator Mardik Martin
Mardik Martin
Mardik Martin is an American screenwriter of Armenian descent. He was born in Iran and raised in Iraq. Although his family in Iraq was wealthy, he fled the country to avoid the draft and arrived in New York in a penniless state...
.
In 2003, Hill met Dorris Halsey, then 77, who had been literary agent for, among others, Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
, Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
, and Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
. In Halsey and her younger partner and protege, Kimberley Cameron, Hill found champions for both his fiction and his screenwriting work. Halsey took on her "first new client in years" and introduced the writer to those in her circle, including Dr. Mani Lal Bhaumik
Mani Lal Bhaumik
Mani Lal Bhaumik is an Indian-born American physicist. He has been an author, lecturer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.His early contributions to laser technology are exemplified by the development of the excimer laser at the Northrop Corporation Research and Technology Center in Los Angeles. As...
, with whom Hill developed the memoir Code Name God, and Laura Huxley
Laura Huxley
Laura Huxley was a musician, author, psychological counselor and lecturer.-Life and work:...
, with whom he briefly collaborated on a film adaptation of her late husband's novel, The Island. Halsey died in 2006, and Cameron now helms the Reece Halsey Agency.
The Stephan Raszer Investigations
Hill's first novel, Enoch's Portal, was loosely based on the exploits of the infamous Order of the Solar Temple, a Franco-Swiss "suicide cult" and spiritual Ponzi schemePonzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
that claimed the legacy of the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
and fifty-three lives. Initially published in hardcover in 2001, Enoch's Portal anticipated the pop cultural tsunami of The Da Vinci Code by finding grist for modern myth in the legend of The Priory of Sion. But where Dan Brown makes his revelations explicit, Hill's hero Raszer walks the mean streets of Los Angeles and Old Prague in a dense fog of deliberate, riddling, and for some critics, maddening obscurity. The book was optioned in manuscript by Paramount Pictures and assigned to cult director Alex Proyas
Alex Proyas
Alexander "Alex" Proyas is a Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing such films as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and Knowing. He is known for employing a stylish photographic techniques in his films, with dark overtones usually in a post-apocalyptic...
, who developed two scripts before abandoning it to make "I,Robot.".
Five years later, Hill followed with the second installment of the Stephan Raszer series, The Last Days Of Madame Rey, a tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
reading in the form of a mystery novel, or a mystery novel in the form of a tarot reading, with acknowledged literary debts to writers from Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
to H. Rider Haggard
H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...
to Jorge Borges to Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
. The third and perhaps final installment in the series arrived in June 2009 with Nowhere-Land, a Sufi legend played out as a role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
in the imagined reality of a metastasizing Mideast war and the plot to broker a bitter peace through a revival of Hassan-i Sabbah's Cult of the Assassins. Nowhere-Land also introduces the character of the chimerical CIA agent Philby Greenstreet
Philby Greenstreet
Philby Greenstreet is a cover name adopted by Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer W. Alan Howell , a protege of legendary spymaster and Cold War architect James Jesus Angleton who turned sharply against his mentor over the conduct of Operation CHAOS during the Richard Nixon...
.
Published works
- Nowhere-Land (Counterpoint 2009) ISBN 1-58243-498-0
- The Last Days Of Madame Rey (Carroll & Graf 2006) ISBN 0-7867-1881-1
- Enoch's Portal (Champion Press 2002) ISBN 1-891400-59-2
Short stories
- China Lake (2009)
- The Org (2009)
- Death and the Plumber (2004)
- The Swami and the Savant (2005)
- The Grotto (2004)
- The Conductor (2003)