Richard Laymon grew up in California and took a BA in English Literature from Willamette University, Oregon, and an MA from Loyola University, Los Angeles. He worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian and a mystery magazine editor before working full-time as a writer. He is the author of more than 30 novels and 65 short stories, which have been published in Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, and Cavalier. A Bram Stoker and Science Fiction Chronicle Award-winning author, his novels have been translated into fifteen languages. He died in February 2001.