Wolfgang Hohlbein (born 15 August 1953 in Weimar, Bezirk Erfurt) is a German writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction who lives near Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia. His wife, Heike Hohlbein, is also a writer and often works with her husband. With more than 200 published books and more than 43 million sold copies he is considered among the most successful German writers in the fantasy genre. Personal life Wolfgang Hohlbein was born on 15 August 1953 in Weimar, Bezirk Erfurt. When he finished school, he took an apprenticeship as industrial clerk. After the apprenticeship he worked in this profession in the following years. To bolster his income, he also worked as night watchman. It was during this time when he started to write his early works, to pass the time faster. In 1971 he met his wife Heike Hohlbein, whom he would marry 3 years later. Together they raised six children. In 1977 their daughter Rebecca Hohlbein was born, who became a writer herself too. In 1982 he quit his job to work as a full-time author. Shortly after he and his family moved to Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia, where they live until today. In 2014 the German TV channel RTL II launched a reality show called Die Hohlbeins – Eine total fantastische Familie (The Hohlbein's, a fantastic family), which aimed to show the life of the Hohlbein family in the a docusoap format. The show garnered about 910,000 viewers during the first episode, but after a fast drop-off in viewers and negative criticism of being too trivial and boring it was cancelled soon after. Work Writing short stories since young age, Hohlbein was first recognized as an author after sending in a manuscript he and his wife had written at a fantasy and science fiction writing contest in 1982. They won and their book, Märchenmond (English title: "Magic Moon"), was published by Ueberreuter Verlag, soon becoming a bestseller and winning several awards. In the following years the Hohlbein's wrote two sequels to the book, continuing their success. The trilogy remains their greatest success until today and sold more than 2 million copies. He's also a writer of pulp fiction, including the series Der Hexer (The Warlock), which he conceived in 1984 for the magazine Gespenster-Krimi (Ghost Thriller) published by Bastei Lübbe, mainly based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and of which he wrote the majority of novels initially