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John Wiswell

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Born
in The United States
Website

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Member Since
June 2007


John Wiswell is a disabled author who lives where New York keeps all its trees. He won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Debut Novel for Someone You Can Build A Nest In, and the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for Open House on Haunted Hill, and the Locus Award for Best Novelette for That Story Isn't The Story. His fiction has been translated into over fifteen languages. ...more

Terry Pratchett

I'm so grateful that Terry Pratchett spent so many years creating incomparable fiction for us. Fantasy would not be the same without him.
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Published on March 12, 2015 12:27
Average rating: 3.85 · 30,982 ratings · 7,125 reviews · 71 distinct worksSimilar authors
Someone You Can Build a Nes...

3.86 avg rating — 25,514 ratings — published 2024 — 25 editions
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Wearing the Lion

3.63 avg rating — 1,554 ratings — published 2025 — 9 editions
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The Dragon Has Some Complaints

3.91 avg rating — 895 ratings — published 2026 — 6 editions
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Open House on Haunted Hill

4.15 avg rating — 759 ratings — published 2020 — 2 editions
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D.I.Y

3.83 avg rating — 322 ratings — published 2022
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The Three O’Clock Dragon

3.70 avg rating — 211 ratings — published 2023
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I'll Miss Myself

3.76 avg rating — 180 ratings — published 2024
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Phantom View

3.69 avg rating — 71 ratings — published 2025 — 2 editions
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Questa storia non è la storia

3.88 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions
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Reactor Magazine Short Fict...

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3.33 avg rating — 9 ratings
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Summer is a season to be savored. It feels so good, and it goes so fast.   But take heart, bookworms! Summer’s not over yet! As a kind of...
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The Final Chronic...
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The Haunted House Next Door by Andrés Miedoso
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The blend of mild spookiness and silly, gross-out humor made this a winner with the 9-year-old who I read it with.
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System Collapse by Martha Wells
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The Haunted House Next Door by Andrés Miedoso
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Never Flinch by Stephen  King
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Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer
Ode to the Half-Broken
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Absolute Martian Manhunter, Vol. 1 by Deniz Camp
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Javier Rodríguez's art is on another level. This deserves to be praised in the same breath as Dave Gibbons's art for Watchmen. ...more
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Domino, Vol. 1 by Gail Simone
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Domino, Vol. 1 by Gail Simone
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Quotes by John Wiswell  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“No young woman of means has gone through her entire life without at least once surveying her opportunities and wishing for a dragon instead.”
John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

“All Shesheshen could do for Homily was be patient with her, and make space for her, and eventually, one day behind her back, eat her mother.”
John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

“[...]for hatred was the fear people let themselves enjoy.”
John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

Polls

2nd Quarter 2025 - Fantasy #2

 
  3 votes, 33.3%

 
  2 votes, 22.2%

 
  1 vote, 11.1%

 
  1 vote, 11.1%

 
  1 vote, 11.1%

 
  1 vote, 11.1%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Horror Aficionados : Pseudopod for your short horror fiction needs! 138 290 Jul 15, 2019 10:53AM  
Horror Aficionados : Pseudopod 508 1108 Jul 15, 2019 10:58AM  
Reading with Style: This topic has been closed to new comments. SU 21 Completed Tasks 853 76 Aug 31, 2021 09:01PM  
Sci-fi and Heroic...: What have you been Reading this October? 57 65 Nov 01, 2021 09:49AM  
Play Book Tag: 2022 Hugo Awards 16 29 Sep 10, 2022 07:34PM  
SciFi and Fantasy...: D.I.Y by John Wiswell - March Short Story 17 47 Apr 01, 2023 07:10AM  
“A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair.

James, what’s wrong?' the friend asked. 'Is it the work?'

Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?

How many words did you get today?' the friend pursued.

Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): 'Seven.'

Seven? But James… that’s good, at least for you.'

Yes,' Joyce said, finally looking up. 'I suppose it is… but I don’t know what order they go in!”
Stephen King

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
Niels Bohr

“A fanatic is a man who, when he's lost sight of his purpose, redoubles his effort.”
Poul Anderson, Harvest of Stars

“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.”
Groucho Marx

“[O]ne of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened before.”
Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

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Comments (showing 1-8)    post a comment »
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message 8: by John

John Wiswell Ella wrote: "John wrote: "Ella wrote: "Thanks for the friend request, John! Have you read any Dunsany?"

Pleased to meet you, Ella! I only started reading him in 2013, when I was challenged to ape his style. I ..."


As someone just starting to get publications under my belt, I completely sympathize with his fear. He was unique in ways that would probably get a lot of any marketplace to shut him out. Many of our greats were like that!


message 7: by Lena (last edited Jan 27, 2015 08:32PM)

Lena John wrote: "Ella wrote: "Thanks for the friend request, John! Have you read any Dunsany?"

Pleased to meet you, Ella! I only started reading him in 2013, when I was challenged to ape his style. I failed terrib..."


So true! Though apparently his unusual prose style caused him worry - he wrote once,

"For years no style seemed to me natural but that of the Bible and I feared that I never would become a writer when I saw that other people did not use it."


message 6: by John

John Wiswell Ella wrote: "Thanks for the friend request, John! Have you read any Dunsany?"

Pleased to meet you, Ella! I only started reading him in 2013, when I was challenged to ape his style. I failed terribly, though I wrote a preposterous thing in result. He's one of Fantasy's truly unique authors.


message 5: by Lena

Lena Thanks for the friend request, John! Have you read any Dunsany?


message 4: by John

John Wiswell Ken wrote: "Hi John. Good evening, I hope the weekend is well. Thanks for accepting me on your friends list. I look forward to doing some back reading on your many book reviews and come across some gems that I..."

Happy to meet you, Ken. Thanks for the earnest explanation of why you wanted to be friends in the invitation. It's rare someone explains like that. I ought to be reading more non-superhero comics this summer - Demo looks particularly appealing.


message 3: by John

John Wiswell Joe wrote: "Hi john, Thanks for accepting, What is the one book you would recommend to me?

Joe."


We do seem to have fairly similar tastes, looking at our two book feeds. You're reading one of my all-time favorite novels right now. Comparing the lists, I'd next recommend Huxley's Brave New World. It's a wild vision of the future pregnant with social commentary.


Joseph Hi john, Thanks for accepting, What is the one book you would recommend to me?

Joe.


SHAKIRA CHOONG My dear friend,
How have you been?
I would be very honoured if you could be so kind as to read my story and see it you like it?
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5...

hugs,
shakira
http://justmeshakirack.blogspot.com


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