Goingback, Owl 1959-

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GOINGBACK, Owl 1959-

(Jay Littlehawk)

PERSONAL:

Born May 1, 1959, in St. Louis, MO; son of Quiet Starr (a book store manager); married Nancy Santos Bello (a professional cook), January 5, 1978; children: Jason, Michael. Ethnicity: "Native American." Education: Attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Branch Office Torreson Air Force Base, Spain. Hobbies and other interests: History, martial arts, camping, hiking.

ADDRESSES:

Office—P.O. Box 5080, Winter Park, FL 32793-5080.

CAREER:

Jim's Place (restaurant), Warner Robins, Georgia, owner and manager, 1981-86; freelance writer, 1986—. Lecturer on Native-American folklore; speaker at science fiction conventions. Military service: U.S. Air Force, 1976-81; became sergeant; received good conduct medal and Air Force Longevity award.

MEMBER:

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America; Horror Writers Association (member of board of trustees, 1997).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Nebula Award nomination, best short story of 1995, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, for "Grass Dancer"; Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, Horror Writers Association, 1997, for Crota.

WRITINGS:

Crota (novel), D. I. Fine (New York, NY), 1996.

The Gift (juvenile fiction), illustrated by Diana Magnuson, Wright Group (Bothell, WA), 1997.

Eagle Feathers (juvenile fiction), illustrated by Diana Magnuson, Wright Group (Bothell, WA), 1997.

Shaman Moon (novel), White Wolf Publishing (Clarkston, GA), 1997.

Evil Whispers (novel), Signet (New York, NY), 2001.

Breed (novel), Signet (New York, NY), 2002.

Work represented in anthologies, including Grails: Quests, Visitations, and Other Occurrences, Unnameable Press (Atlanta, GA), 1992; When Will You Rage?, White Wolf Publishing (Clarkston, GA), 1994; (under both name Owl Goingback and pseudonym Jay Littlehawk) Tales from the Great Turtle, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1994; Excalibur (includes the Nebula nominee "Grass Dancer"), Warner Books (New York, NY), 1995; and Phantoms of the Night, DAW Books (New York, NY), 1996. Contributor to magazines.

SIDELIGHTS:

Native-American author Owl Goingback has penned many science fiction and fantasy stories and contributed to several anthologies in those genres. His first novel, Crota, is a horror novel, and the horrifying creature of the title springs from Native-American myth. The human characters include Sheriff Skip Harding, who investigates the field-dressed bodies of the Crota's victims as if they are the victims of a particularly vicious human serial killer until Native-American game warden Jay Little Hawk persuades him otherwise. William Marden, reviewing Crota in the Orlando Sentinel, cited the novel for "giving a scientific explanation for the survival of a creature that has lived since the time of the dinosaurs." He described the work as a "compelling page turner" which "fulfills its initial promise with a dynamic ending complete with an unexpected but heartwarming twist."

Goingback has also written books for children, including The Gift and Eagle Feathers. For adults, he followed Crota with another novel, Shaman Moon, a tale of a Native-American werewolf.

Goingback once told CA: "I was raised in a rural farming community in the Midwest. Having few neighbors, and even fewer friends, I turned to books for companionship. I started out by reading mostly mysteries, but soon developed a fondness for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Many a lonely night was spent being happily entertained by such masters of the genre as Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H. P. Lovecraft. It was during those early years that I made my first attempts at writing stories. Some were good. Others were mercifully disposed of.

"Since my family didn't have much money, I knew that going to college was out of the question; therefore, I dropped out of high school in my senior year—at the ripe old age of seventeen—and enlisted in the Air Force to take advantage of the G.I. Bill. I gave up rural life for travels and adventures in Europe and the Middle East, learning that all people have basically the same hopes, desires, and dreams.

"At the age of twenty-one, I left the military to open a small restaurant in central Georgia. It was there, during lulls in business, that I returned to my love of writing. I started out writing self-defense articles for martial arts magazines, but switched to fiction writing at the advice of a friend. Drawing on my Native-American heritage, I was soon weaving stories that earned critical acclaim from my peers.

"In 1986, I gave up the restaurant business in order to devote more of my time to my literary endeavors. I consider myself a modern storyteller, intertwining tales of fiction with issues of importance. Like the legends and folklore told by the oral storytellers of my people, the fiction stories I write are teaching stories. They all contain a bit of knowledge that I am sharing with others, but that knowledge is often hidden and it is up to the reader to find it."