Chester 'Chet" Carlton Williamson was born on June 19, 1948 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Chester G. Williamson, an aircraft sheet metal worker and Helen Williamson née, Hershey. He graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1970 and has worked as a public school teacher in Ohio, and an actor. He has written horror, science fiction, and suspense since 1981. Among his novels are Second Chance, Hunters, Defenders of the Faith, Ash Wednesday, Reign, Dreamthorp, and Psycho Sanitarium, an authorized sequel to Robert Bloch's classic Psycho. Over a hundred of his short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, The Magazine of F&SF, and many other magazines and anthologies. He has won the International Horror Guild Award, and has been shortlisted twice for the World Fantasy Award, six times for the HWA Stoker, and once for the MWA's Edgar. Nearly all of his works are available in ebook format . A stage and film actor, he has recorded over 40 unabridged audiobooks, both of his own work and that of many other writers.
