Gerald Welch
Gerald Welch (born Gerald Mason Welch September 10, 1964) is an American novelist, artist, musician and director. He is best known as co-author of the “Legacy Series” novels with the late Warren Murphy but has also authored “The Last Witness” series.
Early life
Welch was born in Gibson City, Illinois, the son of George and Lillian Welch. His father was a truck driver until he developed emphysema. He died when Welch was twelve years old. After his father died, his family moved to Texas. Welch is married and has four sons and one daughter.
Career
Radio and Television
Welch worked for several radio stations as disc jockey KLUF (1980), KSPL (1980–1981), WGCY (1983–1986) and news director KDET (1990–1992). He hosted various radio shows over the years.
Welch was General Manager of KLNM (2002–2004), a UPN affiliate in Lufkin, Texas and co-host of the Whatever TV show, with Nick Carroll and Herb Midgely.
Writing
His first attempt at a novel was in 1987, entitled “Born a Warrior”. Later, Welch retooled the story and it eventually became “The Last Witness”.
Business
Due to his strong background in video and animation, Welch purchased a Nacogdoches, Texas video production company in 1993. The company thrived until Welch switched the company’s priorities from college and wedding videos to local wrestling production. When the wrestling company went bankrupt, it took Welch with it, forcing him to drop out of his 1996 Congressional race. By 1998, Welch was looking at bigger things, and began working on virtual reality technology in 1998 as President and CEO of WAVE (We Are Virtual Entertainment, Inc) Corporation in Texas. The team of eight spent two years developing cutting edge 3D technology. First rounds of funding had begun when 9-11 occurred, killing the startup. Welch created MediaMason as a private company that managed all of his creative works. Bookmason handles The Last Witness series.
Art
Welch’s medium was primarily pencil and ink until he entered the military. Once there, he became familiar with the Quantel Paintbox and other broadcast-quality digital equipment and eventually refit the graphics for his station, AFKN and became their lead artist for the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Music
Welch is a self-taught musician and plays rhythm guitar, bass guitar, drums and piano. He started playing publicly at church as a rhythm guitarist and then settled on bass guitar as his primary instrument. He worked as a session musician at Hilltop Studios, a 24-track recording studio in Paxton, Illinois from 1984–1986. During that time, he was also the bass guitarist for The Silver Nickel Band.
Politics
Welch ran for Texas District 1 in the United States House of Representatives race as a Republican in 1996, but was forced to drop out of the race when his video production company went bankrupt.
Awards and honors
Directing
Welch joined the Army as a Broadcast Journalist, graduating third in his class at the Defense Information School at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. Stationed in Korea, Welch found little to do off-base and began spending his free time learning to use the high-end broadcast machinery available at AFKN. Welch received two Keith L. Ware awards for directing and a Thomas Jefferson Award for directing the 1988 documentary “Team Spirit ‘87”.
Writing
He was co-awarded the Al Hartley award for Best Comic Book for his entry in the “MEGA-UNITY Seven Day Challenge”.
Miscellaneous
In 2004, Welch became one of only four people to be granted the title of “Honorary Master of Sinanju” by Warren Murphy for ‘outstanding contributions to the House of Sinanju’.
Novels
| Series | Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Last Witness | 2006 | Resurrected Destiny | The origin story of Shiloh Wagner. Since Welch separated the story from his Arterran origins, he rewrote book one to make Shiloh’s past more opaque. |
| The Last Witness | 2007 | The Arterran Chronicles | Originally, Arterran Chronicles was a part of book one, but after an exhaustive review, Warren Murphy suggested separating the story into two books. Welch took the early parts of Shiloh’s life as the basis of book 0, but found it too short for novel, so he added some of the extra materials he had accumulated in developing the series |
| The Last Witness | 2007 | War in Heaven | Welch spent two years researching the War in Heaven, and while the story is clearly set in the fictional world of The Last Witness, Welch tried to stay as close to the Bible and Jewish Mishnah references as possible. |
| The Last Witness | 2009 | The Protean Explosion | The concept was to provide a device to populate the world with threats large enough for Shiloh to combat. |
| The Last Witness | 2012 | Gods of War | This was the book that Warren Murphy decided was good enough to extend an offer for Welch to help author the Legacy book series. |
| The Last Witness | 2012 | Season of the Witch | This is where Welch said the series seemed to gel together for the first time. And here it is shown that Gerah is not unstoppable. |
| Legacy | 2012 | Forgotten Son | Welch and Murphy spent considerable time developing the characters, tweaking them to fit into the new Legacy framework. Incorporating typical Destroyer satire, the book referenced a Senatorial candidate who claimed 1/64th Sinanju heritage named Liz Worn. |
| Legacy | 2013 | The Killing Fields | A killer from a VIGIL-sponsored organization that turns children into living weapons is sent to take down Stone and Freya. Welch said that Warren wanted a cover that seemed like it would reach out and get you. |
| Legacy | 2014 | Overload | Another satirical book, the plot involves tricking Freya into working in a martial arts video game, financed by has-been Stevie Sturgeon. |
| Legacy | 2014 | Trial and Terror | The world’s greatest spy is not in London, but from a small island nation that derives its income from guano. |
| Legacy | 2015 | Mother Mine | Two tales. Two paths. The same result. |
| Legacy | 2017 | UNG: Master and Poet | Welch and his wife Christina teamed up to write a special edition 218 page poem that was limited to 25 prints and given to select fans of the Destroyer and Legacy series. |
| Legacy | 2017 | Laughing Matter | This is the last book that Murphy and Welch worked on together. |
| The Last Witness | 2017 | Shattered Prophecy | Welch takes the series outside the US again as the area of Shiloh’s influence expands. |
| Legacy | TBA | 100 Proof | TBA |
| The Last Witness | TBA | Body of Lies | TBA |
| Legacy | TBA | The Homecoming | TBA |
| Legacy | TBA | Stabs n Kisses | TBA |
External links
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