JW Paine
J.W. Paine (aka "Tom Elliott") was born December 20, 1953 in Torrance, California. He is a writer, journalist, novelist and political commentator. He began his writing career as a reporter for the St. Tammany News-Banner (Mandeville, Louisiana) and was soon promoted to managing editor. He later moved to Wyoming, and then to California, where he worked as an editor for a variety of newspapers and trade publications.
In 1986, Paine began publishing horror fiction (all written under the pseudonym Tom Elliott) in a variety of notable small press publications, including Cemetery Dance, Hot Blood, and Grue, with several of his works appearing in anthologies such as Cold Blood and The Best of Cemetery Dance, and October Dreams; he also contributed the story "Briefcase Full of Blues" to Nightmares on Elm Street: Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams. Paine's first horror novel, The Dwelling was published in 1989 by St. Martin's Press and was nominated for the Horror Writers of America's Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel that year.
Writing as Tom Elliott, Paine published dozens of short stories and novellas, but to-date, The Dwelling is his only novel-length work to see print. Paine briefly edited and published AFRAID, a self-described "Newsletter for the Horror Professional", which featured how-to and advice columns by a number of industry pros, including Mort Castle, Gary Brandner, Terry Black, and J.N. Williamson; Paine's own contributions to AFRAID comprised editorials chronicling his increasing annoyance with editors and with the leadership of the HWA (he was once dismissively described by then-HWA president Chelsea Quinn Yarbro as "combative"). His belligerence evidently reached its peak in 1990, when he squabbled with an editor at Zebra Books over the title of his second novel (originally Posthumous, Zebra had changed it to Beware The Night Sky, citing the original title's obtuseness for the change). Paine insisted the original title remain, and after several heated arguments, Zebra canceled the publishing contract. The book, whatever the title, remains unpublished to this day.
Disillusioned with the low rates paid for genre novels, and angry over his failed negotiation with Zebra Books, Paine ceased writing fiction, moving on to script and produce commercials and industrial trade films.
Paine currently lives on a horse ranch in central Colorado with his wife. His current public writing is the website PirateBallerina, which features information and commentary surrounding the case of controversial University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill. Reportedly, Paine is researching an historical novel set in the post-Civil War American West.