INTERVIEW: Elisabeth Waters and Ann Sharp on Stars of Darkover

STARS OF DARKOVER – not just the glorious night sky over the world of the Bloody Sun, but the authors who have been inspired over the decades by Marion Zimmer Bradley’s favorite world. It will be released on June 3, 2014, to celebrate Marion's 84th birthday.

Elisabeth Waters sold her first short story in 1980 to Marion Zimmer Bradley for The Keeper's Price, the first of the Darkover anthologies. She then went on to sell short stories to a variety of anthologies. Her first novel, a fantasy called Changing Fate, was awarded the 1989 Gryphon Award. She is now working on a sequel to it, in addition to her short story writing and anthology editing. She also worked as a supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera, where she appeared in La Gioconda, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Khovanschina, Das Rheingold, Werther, and Idomeneo.

Ann Sharp, who edited The Darkover Newsletter for ten years, is known for her articles on writing. After the DNL was no longer published, she continued to write these articles for Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine. She is also known for her interest in genealogy and is active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of Founders and Patriots, the National Society of New England Women, and the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century.

Deborah J. Ross: How did Marion Zimmer Bradley influence your writing career?

Elisabeth Waters and Ann Sharp: We are both graduates of the Marion Zimmer Bradley School of Hack-Writing. Ann says that Marion was the first person to explain simply and clearly the elements of a plot. Great literature does not do this very well. Lisa remembers Marion saying that one editor told her to stop trying to show how beautifully she could write and just tell the story. Obviously Marion provided years of nagging encouragement.

INTERVIEW: Shariann Lewitt on Stars of Darkover

STARS OF DARKOVER – not just the glorious night sky over the world of the Bloody Sun, but the authors who have been inspired over the decades by Marion Zimmer Bradley’s favorite world. It will be released on June 3, 2014, to celebrate Marion's 84th birthday.

Reading Marion Zimmer Bradley’s work when she was a girl was part of what inspired Shariann Lewitt to become a science fiction writer.  Today she has published seventeen books and over forty short stories under five different names.  When not writing she teaches at MIT, studies flamenco dance, and is accounted reasonably accomplished at embroidery.

Deborah J. Ross: How did Marion Zimmer Bradley influence your writing career?

Shariann Lewitt: Marion Zimmer Bradley, and the Darkover books in particular, are part of the reason I became a science fiction writer.  As a young girl, Bradley was one of the writers who wrote about girls and women in a way I could identify—interesting, active women with agency, but who also chafed at the constraints of their society.  Many of the other writers I enjoyed reading growing up wrote entirely fantasy, and here Darkover was a wonderful exception because, while there was magic, there was also science.  At least there was space travel, and I was one of the kids who loved science and the space program.  Girls existed and sometimes got to act in fantasy books, but were entirely invisible in any books with space ships and star travel.  More than anything else, Marion Zimmer Bradley showed me that I could be a science fiction writer without erasing myself as a female from the time I was very young,

INTERVIEW: Diana L. Paxson on Stars of Darkover

STARS OF DARKOVER – not just the glorious night sky over the world of the Bloody Sun, but the authors who have been inspired over the decades by Marion Zimmer Bradley’s favorite world. It will be released on June 3, 2014, to celebrate Marion's 84th birthday.

Diana L. Paxson is one of the writers who was inspired by Marion Zimmer Bradley. In addition to the Chronicles of Westria and historical fantasies such as The White Raven and the Wodan's Children trilogy, she continued Marion's Avalon series, most recently with Sword of Avalon. She is also the author of 86 short stories, including contributions to most of Marion's anthologies. Her story takes place a generation after the events in "The Motherquest" and "A Season of Butterflies".

Deborah J. Ross: How did Marion Zimmer Bradley influence your writing career?

Diana L. Paxson: I made the mistake of taking Creative Writing in college-- a mistake, because although it did teach me something about structure and style, the goal was to write literary fiction, which I found a dead bore, and my stories showed it. As a result, I gave up on the idea of writing for the next ten years. It was not until I had married Jon DeCles, who had been unofficially adopted into the Zimmer family, and gotten to know Marion herself, that it dawned on me that real people (i.e people who liked the same kind of books I did) could actually write them.  When I finally managed to complete a novel, Marion was kind enough to read and critique it. I cried. Then I rewrote it. Several times, actually. But Marion continued to encourage me, and so I didn't give up. Since everyone else in the family was writing too (except for my sister-in-law Tracy Blackstone, who was our agent) we ended up with a sort of extended-family cum writers' colony, with some amazing discussions around the tea-table.

New York report...a busy week!

Lambda Literary Awards, a micro-report: The award ceremony last night was filled with glamour, fellowship, humor, and tears (especially the video montage, "The Book That Saved My Life.") Saw a few friends, met some others. Did not win, but losing to Melissa Scott (who was pioneer and inspiration to a generation) (and Ann Griswold) counts as a honor. Now I can forever say I am a Lambda Award Finalist!

The Heir of Khored, the final volume of my epic fantasy trilogy, is now on sale! (At your local bookstore or the usual online venues.)





On SFSignal, I collected responses from some of the authors in Stars of Darkover about how Marion had influenced their careers. The "guest roundtable" is live today.

Stars of Darkover is available in print edition, with ebooks to follow shortly. I guess the different editions go live at slightly different times.




Over on Far Fetched Tales you can listen to a free podcast of my short story, "Nor Iron Bars," from Sword and Sorceress.

INTERVIEW: Steven Harper on Stars of Darkover

STARS OF DARKOVER – not just the glorious night sky over the world of the Bloody Sun, but the authors who have been inspired over the decades by Marion Zimmer Bradley’s favorite world. It will be released on June 3, 2014, to celebrate Marion's 84th birthday.


Steven Harper is the pen name for Steven Piziks, a name no one can reliably spell or pronounce. Marion Bradley bought his very first short story for Sword and Sorceress IX way back in 1990, and his keyboard has been clattering ever since. He's written some twenty novels over the years, including The Silent Empire series and The Clockwork Empire steampunk series. Steven also teaches English in southeast Michigan.  When not writing, he plays the folk harp, dabbles in oral storytelling, and spends more time on-line than is probably good for him.   


Deborah J. Ross:  How did Marion Zimmer Bradley influence your writing career?

Steven Harper: Marion forced me to learn how to write women.  Back in the early 90s, when I was a new writer, about the only short fiction market for the sword-and-sorcery stories I wanted to write was Marion, and she wanted strong female characters.  So I learned to write strong female characters, and I sold her more than a dozen stories over the years.  She also taught me how to be a professional--writing daily, accepting criticism, understanding how to deliver what a reader (and editor) wants, and seeing writing as a business as well as an art.  As a result, when I sold a novel, the first person I called was Marion.  "Help!" I said.  "I need an agent!"  She laughed and made a recommendation that led to the agent I have to this day.