Mercedes Lackey

Lackey was born in Chicago.[1] Her birth prevented her father from being called to serve in the Korean War.[4]

She placed her meeting with science fiction at age 10 or 11, when she picked up her father's copy of James H. Schmitz's Agent of Vega. She then read Andre Norton's Beast Master and Lord of Thunder and continued to read all of Norton's works. Lackey had difficulties obtaining enough interesting books from the public library to sate her passion for reading. She wrote for herself but without real direction or purpose until she attended Purdue University. Lackey graduated from Purdue in 1972.[5]

While at Purdue, she took a one-on-one class of English Literature Independent Studies with a professor who was a fellow science fiction fan. He helped her analyze books she enjoyed and then use that knowledge. Lackey then encountered fan fiction, which further encouraged her writing. She began publishing work in science fiction fanzines and then discovered filk and had some filk lyrics published by Off Centaur Publications.

Lackey signing autographs at CONvergence, 2008

Lackey submitted a story to Sword and Sorceress, then sold the rewritten story to Fantasy Book Magazine. Her first sale was to Friends of Darkover.

She met C. J. Cherryh through filk. Cherryh helped Lackey through 17 rewrites of 'Arrows'. During this time, Marion Zimmer Bradley included Lackey's short stories in an anthology, Friends of Darkover. Lackey claims to have been writing so much during this time that she had no social life at all. She divorced Tony Lackey, and eventually married Larry Dixon.[6]

She married Anthony Lackey in 1972, and they divorced in 1990. In 1990, she married Larry Dixon.[1] She describes their home outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma as a "2+1⁄2-story concrete dome with an octagonal wooden shell over it to make it look more like a normal house ... it's round with curved outer walls, which makes placement of furniture kind of awkward."[11]

Mercedes Lackey was a protégée of Marion Zimmer Bradley, and got her start writing short stories in Bradley's story collections. Other mentors include writers C. J. Cherryh and Andre Norton, along with her editor, Elizabeth (Betsy) Wollheim of DAW Books.

Her earlier Velgarth novels are all solo projects, but later volumes in the Valdemar saga are illustrated by her husband Larry Dixon, and in many of her latest works he is also credited as co-author. Many of her other novels are collaborations. She has worked with fantasy authors Andre Norton (such as the Halfblood Chronicles), Marion Zimmer Bradley (such as Rediscovery and Tigers Burning Bright), Anne McCaffrey (such as The Ship Who Searched), and Piers Anthony (If I Pay Thee Not in Gold). She has most recently written The Obsidian Trilogy with historian James Mallory; a historical fantasy series about an "alternative" Elizabeth I with romance writer Roberta Gellis; and the Heirs of Alexandria series with Dave Freer and Eric Flint.[6]

• Bartel, Julie (2005). "Lackey, Mercedes Ritchie". In Cullinan, Bernice E.; et al. (eds.). The Continuum Encyclopedia of Young Adult Literature. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-82-641710-7.
• Winters, Louis J. (1994). "Lackey, Mercedes R.". In Berger, Laura Standley (ed.). Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers. St. James Press. ISBN 978-1-55-862202-9.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Mercedes Lackey.

• Official website
• Baen catalog of books and ebooks by Mercedes Lackey
  • Current page; both pages include links to free, legal samples
• Mercedes Lackey at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database