Jeremy Poolet

Bewildering Stories biography

to Bewildering Stories bibliography

I was born in a small mining town in Upstate New York. After the closing of the mines, the town fell to ruin, leaving its only claim to fame a dispirited lake monster. We moved around quite a bit, looking for work.

My Pop went from miner to railroad spiker, and the work was hard to come by, especially with the new gasoline cars being all the rage. I spent a great number of years in Maine, in Castle Rock and Derry, where I built a gradual fear of clowns and spiders. But when the work ran out we moved on again.

We ended up overseas for a spell, mostly in London. I spent most of my time exploring its underground, as well as the great countrysides, and came across the quaintest bazaar just outside a little village surrounded by a wall.

It was about this time I came upon a book. Well, a guide really, all about hitchhiking, and I decided to venture off on my own. I traveled all over Europe and beyond, spending most nights in hostels and boarding houses. (One memorable night was spent across the hallway from a bloke yelling he’d been turned into a giant cockroach!)

Eventually a doomed plane ride back across the Atlantic crashed me into the side of the Catskill Mountains in Northern New York, bringing me back to where I started. Ultimately I moved next door to Vermont to head the engineering department at the Ilium Works factory there, although, on occasion, I still like to sneak back across the river to this little bar I fancy and listen to the piano.