William Browning Spencer (born 1946) is an award-winning American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novelist and short story writer living in Austin

Austin

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. His science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and horror stories are often darkly and surreally

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 humorous. His novel Resume With Monsters conflates soul-destroying H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

ian horrors with soul-destroying lousy jobs.
His story "The Death of the Novel" was a 1995 Bram Stoker Award

Bram Stoker Award

The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association for "superior achievement" in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA...

 nominee for Best Short Story.

In 2005, his short story "Pep Talk" was turned into a short film by writer Eric B. Anderson and director Scott Smith (Project Greenlight) and premiered at the Santa Fe Film Festival in December 2006.

Books

• Endless Laundry (unpublished)
• Maybe I'll Call Anna (1990, novel)
• The Return of Count Electric (1993, short story collection)
• Resume With Monsters (1995, novel)
• Zod Wallop (1995, novel)
• Irrational Fears (1998, novel)
• The Ocean and All Its Devices (2006, short story collection)

Short stories

• "Best Man" (1993)
• "A Child's Christmas in Florida" (1993)
• "Daughter Doom" (1993)
• "The Entomologists at Obala" (1993)
• "Graven Images" (1993)
• "Haunted by the Horror King" (1993)
• "Irrational Fears" (1993)
• "Looking Out for Eleanor" (1993)
• "Pep Talk" (1993)
• "The Return of Count Electric" (1993)
• "Snow" (1993)
• "The Wedding Photographer in Crisis" (1993)
• "The Ocean and All Its Devices" (1994)
• "The Death of the Novel" (1995), Bram Stoker Best Short Story Award 1996
• "Downloading Midnight" (1995)
• "The Oddskeeper's Daughter" (1995)
• "The Halfway House At the Heart of Darkness" (1998)
• "Stone and the Librarian" (2007)
• "The Tenth Muse" (2007)
• "Penguins of the Apocalypse" (2008)

Anthologies containing stories by William Browning Spencer

• Ghosttide (1993)
• Borderlands 4 (1994)
• Christmas Magic (1994)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction Eleventh Annual Collection (1994)
• Wheel of Fortune (1995)
• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Eighth Annual Collection (1995)
• 100 Tiny Tales of Terror (1996)
• Year's Best SF (1996)
• Eternal Lovecraft: The Persistence of H P Lovecraft in Popular Culture (1998)
• Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny (1998)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction Sixteenth Annual Collection (1999)
• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Twenty-First Annual Collection (2008)

External links

• Book group recount of an evening with William Browning Spencer
• Interview from 1999 at "Crescent Blues"
• Fantastic Fiction summary for William Browning Spencer
• Nova Express Interview
• Review of Irrational Fears
• Review of The Ocean and All Its Devices
• Another Review of The Ocean and All Its Devices
• Review of Resume with Monsters
• New York Times Review of Zod Wallop
• Review of Zod Wallop