Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare. His 1987 novel On Stranger Tides served as inspiration for the Monkey Island franchise of video games and was optioned for adaptation into the. Most of Powers' novels are "secret histories". He uses actual, documented historical events featuring famous people, but shows another view of them in which occult or supernatural factors heavily influence the motivations and actions of the characters. Typically, Powers strictly adheres to established historical facts. He reads extensively on a given subject, and the plot develops as he notes inconsistencies, gaps and curious data; regarding his 2001 novel Declare, he stated,
Life and career
Powers was born in Buffalo, New York, but has lived in California since 1959. He studied English Literature at Cal State Fullerton, and earned his B.A. in 1976. It was there that he first met James Blaylock and K. W. Jeter, both of whom remained close friends and occasional collaborators; the trio have half-seriously referred to themselves as "steampunks" in contrast to the prevailing cyberpunk genre of the 1980s. Powers and Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless while they were at Cal State Fullerton. Another friend Powers first met during this period was noted science fiction writer Philip K. Dick; the character named "David" in Dick's novel VALIS is based on Powers. When Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was retitled Blade Runner to tie-in with the movie based on the novel, Dick dedicated it to Tim and Serena Powers. Powers' first major novel was The Drawing of the Dark, but the novel that earned him wide praise was The Anubis Gates, which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages. Powers also teaches part-time in his role as Writer in Residence for the Orange County High School of the Arts and California School of the Arts in San Gabriel Valley in the Creative Writing Conservatory, as well as Chapman University, where Blaylock teaches. He also taught part-time at the University of Redlands. Powers and his wife, Serena Batsford Powers, currently live in Muscoy, California. He has frequently served as a mentor author as part of the Clarion science fiction/fantasy writer's workshop.
Novels
; The Skies Discrowned
Revised as:
; An Epitaph in Rust ; The Drawing of the Dark ; The Anubis Gates : Philip K. Dick Award winner, 1983; Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1984; BSFA nominee, 1985 ; Dinner at Deviant's Palace : Philip K. Dick Award winner, and Nebula Award nominee, 1985 ; On Stranger Tides : Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1988 ; The Stress of Her Regard : Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1990 and winner of the 1990 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. ; Fault Lines series ;; Expiration Date : World Fantasy Award nominee, 1996; 1996 Nebula Award nominee ;; Earthquake Weather : BSFA Award nominee, 1997; Locus Fantasy Award winner, 1998 ; Declare : World Fantasy Award winner and Locus Fantasy nominee, 2001; 2001 Nebula Award nominee, ; Powers of Two ; Three Days to Never : Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2007 ; Hide Me Among the Graves : A sequel of sorts to The Stress of Her Regard, it involves the Rossetti family and John Crawford, son of the protagonist from The Stress of Her Regard. ; Medusa's Web : A standalone novel where Scott and Madeline Madden uncover the secrets of the Hollywood mansion Caveat, a "conduit for the supernatural". ; Alternate Routes ; More Walls Broken ; Forced Perspectives
Short story collections
Night Moves and Other Stories
On Pirates, by James P. Blaylock and Powers as William Ashbless
The Complete Twelve Hours of the Night : A joke pamphlet by Blaylock and Powers as William Ashbless, published by Cheap Street Press; features in The Anubis Gates
A Short Poem by William Ashbless : A joke chapbook written by Phil Garland, with permission of Blaylock and Powers as Ashbless. Published by The Folly Press.
The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook : A cookbook by Blaylock and Powers as Ashbless. Published by Subterranean Press.
The Bible Repairman : A chapbook containing an original short story. Published by Subterranean Press.
Nine Sonnets by Francis Thomas Marrity : A chapbook containing nine sonnets "written" by one of the main characters in Three Days to Never. Published by Subterranean Press and given away with the collectors' edition of Three Days To Never.
Three Sonnets by Cheyenne Fleming : Printed loose and inserted into the collectors' edition of A Soul in a Bottle.
Death of a Citizen : A short nonfiction essay included in A Comprehensive Dual Bibliography of James P. Blaylock & Tim Powers by Silver Smith. Published by Argent Leaf Press.
Salvage and Demolition : Time-travel novella. Published by Subterranean Press.
Nobody's Home : novella set in the world of The Anubis Gates.
Appointment on Sunset : Published by Charnel House
Down and Out in Purgatory : A ghost story about posthumous revenge. This novella was published by Subterranean Press.
