David Farland

Known as the “Wizard of Storytelling,” writing sensation and author of fifty novels, David wrote short stories as a child and dreamed of growing up to become a fantasy writer. He gained experience in a number of career paths but never lost sight of his goals. Finally, after saving money for years, he decided to risk it all and go to Brigham Young University to study.

While there, he became ill and feverish and started having some fantastic dreams. In one such dream, two futuristic mercenaries were taking shelter in the skull of some giant beast while waiting out a rainstorm. His dreams became so vivid and lifelike that he had to put them in a story called “On My Way to Paradise.”

He entered it into the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest and won the grand prize for the year, the Gold Award. He was immediately contracted by Bantam Books to turn the short story into a novel of the same name, along with a contract to write two more books. The novel, My Way to Paradise spent several months on the Locus Science Fiction Best-seller list, and won a Phillip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for being one of the best science fiction novels of the year.

He wrote science fiction for ten years under his given name David Wolverton, during which he wrote several best sellers. After having mastered science fiction, David decided it was time to take another risk and try writing fantasy, hoping to realize his childhood dream. So as not to confuse his readers, he wrote his fantasies under the name David Farland.

He had to work hard to achieve notoriety in two genres, but eventually his fantasy books started hitting the New York Times Best Seller’s list, beginning with the third book of the Runelords series entitled Wizardborn.

He has not only achieved his childhood dream, but in doing so, became popular in two genres and has amassed many awards for his short fiction in particular, and set a Guinness Record for the world’s largest book signing–a record that he still holds. In 1991, David became a judge for one of the world’s largest writing contests, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and reads thousands of stories each year, editing an annual anthology, and teaches writing classes to new and experienced writers.

To date, David has written and edited fifty-plus published books. These include novels for adults, young adults, anthologies, middle-grade readers, and picture books.

Among his numerous other accomplishments, David eventually returned to BYU as a writing professor for several years. However, when it got in the way of his writing, he ended that and decided to fill his need to share his knowledge by lecturing, giving workshops and seminars to those who would be writers. He is known for having taught many great emerging writers and has had a part in their success, including Stephanie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson and Eric Flint. In many cases it was his influence and words of wisdom that caused a new author to sell their first story. Now he has the privilege of helping other would-be writers to achieve their success. He says, “Nobody makes it alone. We each build on one another.”

As part of his dedication to helping other writers, David writes the David Farland’s #WritingTips, an email bulletin for writers. Many authors rave about how it has helped them. Out of devotion, he provides his #WritingTips for free.