Jean Paiva (1944–1989)

Jean Paiva, born in New York City, was an American horror novelist who published two novels and multiple short stories. She had worked in some form of publishing since college, which she dropped out of to work on the underground rock culture newspaper Crawdaddy. After working at a men's magazine writing a film review column, in 1984 she found a position as an assistant at a trade magazine publishing company. In addition to her main job, she used the weekends to be a first reader for the New American Library, and work on her own horror/suspense novel. She published her first work, The Lilith Factor, in 1989, before dying in November of that year at the age of 45. Her work has continued to appear posthumously, including short stories and her novel The Last Gamble, published in 1990.