About the Author

Dorian Edgerly is the author of science fiction, dark fantasy, horror, and suspense.

 

His love of storytelling was forged on the anvil of Dr. Seuss and R.L. Stine, hardened in the fiery, exploitative kiln of '70s, '80s, and '90s paperback pulp, and cooled and refined in the vast, deadly worlds of George R.R. Martin, Isaac Asimov, and Dan Simmons. Oil the blade with some modern masters like James S.A. Corey, Joe Abercrombie, and Kim Stanley Robinson, and you’ll have scratched the surface of the voices that shaped his writing.

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Raised just south of Boston in the heart of the infamous “Bridgewater Triangle,” Dorian’s early years were spent listening to people rattle off “true” tales of hauntings, disappearances, hitchhiking phantasms, and extraterrestrial visits, many of which "occurred" just a bike ride from his own front door. Add this to his reading and viewing habits, and the world took on a distinctive shape in his eyes. Every dark forest road sparked visions of uncanny creatures and fantastic beasts lurking in the trees. Every rusty-signed, one-road town and every decaying, forgotten building or graveyard was a potential site of horror, dark rituals, and body-snatching. Every open field or stretch of farmland was a ripe scene for slithering, subterranean ghouls, possessed scarecrows, or otherworldly visitors here to harvest more than just crops.

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From the start, Dorian’s parents fostered a deep love of books. There were no rules or taboos, no guidelines on what could be housed between the covers. From comics to history to , it was all valid and encouraged.

 

He and his father often read together, especially stories beyond a young  Edgerly's own reading level, always with that ratty, worn-out Webster's dictionary in arm's reach. His mother often dove into whatever he was reading and discussed the literary adventures and terrors with him, giving him the opportunity to dissect and reflect on stories and characters, rather than just chewing through them and forgetting them along the way.

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TV and movies, though not prioritized the way books were, also held a special place in family tradition. There were the usual cartoons, Van Damme flicks, family movies, and comedies on offer, but the darker stuff was never off the table. Horror and speculative fiction were a big part of the cultural scene in the '80s and '90s, and they were part of the lineup on Friday and Saturday nights at home. Whether at home with his mother and sister, or at his dad's house on the weekend, monsters and mayhem were on the menu as often as Pooh Bear and Pee-wee. Stuff like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Predator, The Terminator, Halloween, and The Evil Dead were among just a few of the early cinematic bonding experiences Dorian shared with his parents and sister.​

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That stuff also often set the scene for the myriad ways Dorian would plot to scare the everloving piss out of aforementioned sister.

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Comedy was also cherished, from The Three Stooges and Monty Python, to the standup greats of the past three generations, to Tommy Boy, South Park, and Red and Stimpy. Combine the family's love of comedy with the signature smartassery that comes with being raised in Southeastern Massachusetts, and there was rarely a day without at least a few rounds of hysterics in the house.

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And then there was Halloween.

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While most kids counted the days 'til Christmas, Dorian and the others in his family were wont to get antsy and throw up the pumpkins and skeletons by mid-September. They were plotting costumes, haunted house excursions, and trick-or-treat routes well before the New England leaves began to turn. Every year, that first whiff of latex and cheap fabric in K-Mart's Halloween section were akin to the late-November smell of cookies and pine resin to other kids.

 

For those few weeks, movie nights and all other activities were replaced with weekly pilgrimages to every haunted house in driving distance. For several years, the whole family took their love of frights by the horns and worked at one of their favorite haunts. Along with Dorian's longtime childhood friend, they themselves stepped into the fog-thickened woods of Lakeville, MA donning homemade masks, costumes, and makeup, bloody plastic cleavers, and a 1978 Stihl chainsaw that screamed like something straight out of the mouth of Hell.

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Dorian’s writing blends nostalgia for his early influences with inspiration from his ongoing obsessive consumption of genre fiction. He pulls from the legends of his hometown, the mass market paperback nightmares of his formative years, the awe-inspiring, infinite scope of science fiction, and the infinite, enchanted lands of epic fantasy, all while keeping his focus on his characters above all else, letting the inherent imperfection of simply being human carry the bulk of the storytelling load.

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Dorian meandered through his early twenties while serving in the Air Force Reserve, attending art school, and touring the northeast as the front man of a rock band, all the while harboring back-burner dreams of writing novels.

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He now lives in central Florida and has reallocated most of his creative energy into writing those novels.

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When he’s not writing, Dorian can be found reading, working out, noodling on his guitars, playing survival horror and Soulslike games, or flipping through the stacks at the nearest mom-and-pop used bookstore. He might also be finally watching a movie he should have seen years ago, but didn’t, because he was too busy rewatching The Crow, Billy Madison, Predator, Jaws, or Jason Lives for the 64th time.

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He writes for anyone who wonders what’s waiting in the dark, hidden from sight, or what's lurking beyond the edges of our solar system, hidden from our scanners, and what happens when we seek those things out... and find them.