Writing Wednesday - David Eddings

Yet another one of my favorite authors is David Eddings. David Eddings was born in Spokane, WA on July 7, 1931 and died in Carson City, NV on June 2, 2009. Eddings published twenty seven novels. Most of these novels were in the category of epic fantasy, though three of those novels published were outside the fantasy genre.

Eddings wrote five major series: the Belgariad, the Mallorean, the Elenium, the Tamuli, and the Dreamers. While I don't know much about the Dreamers, I know the other four very well. I've read those sixteen books repeatedly over the last several years. The Belgariad and the Mallorean follow the adventures of Belgarion, a scullery boy turned king, and his family. The Elenium and the Tamuli follow the aging knight Sparhawk on his adventures across two continents and the war between two primal forces of the universe that he's a pawn in.

There are ancillary tales to the Belgariad and the Mallorean: Belagarath the Sorcerer, Polgara the Sorceress, and the Rivan Codex. Though the Rivan Codex is less a story and more a blueprint to the Belgariad and the Mallorean. I've also read all three of these books numerous times.

David Eddings wrote most of his books with the help of his wife Leigh. She passed away in 2007 from a series of strokes. Eddings still continued writing after her death, though the manuscript he was working on was never finished or published. Rather it, and most of his papers, were donated to Reed College in Portland, OR.

Eddings first stirrings of writing in the fantasy genre were generated by him doodling a map early one morning before he went to work. He put it aside for several years before seeing a copy of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy in a book store made him realize that perhaps the world of fantasy might hold some acclaim for him. He began annotating and refining that previously forgotten sketch and eventually it became the basis for his world of Aloria, in the Belgariad and Mallorean.

I don't remember when I first discovered David Eddings. I just know I devoured every book of his that I could get my hands on. I checked them out from the library over and over again, and at one point I owned every fantasy book he'd written except for the Dreamers series. Over the years I've since lost my collection but I look forward to the day when I can once again claim ownership of Eddings' works. Though now I'll probably have to hunt down his Dreamers series just so I can see what they're about.

Writing Wednesday - Anne McCaffrey

Going on with my theme of sharing some of my favorite authors, let me introduce you to another author who inspired me: Anne McCaffrey.

Anne McCaffrey was a very prolific writer. Her career spanned 46 years and more books than I can safely count. Her most well known books are her books about the planet Pern. She wrote 17 of the existing 22 books. Her son Todd has taken over writing the Pern books, at first with her and later after her death alone. Another set of books that I love are her FT&T books, the most prolific being her The Tower and the Hive series.

Anne McCaffrey was born in 1926 in Massachusetts and died in 2011 in Ireland, where she'd become a naturalized Irish citizen. The first Pern story was published in 1967. In 1968 McCaffrey won a Hugo Award for best novella based on her world of Pern. In 1969 she won a Nebula Award for another one of her Pern novellas. Both of these novellas were eventually combined into her first book Dragonflight.

Anne McCaffrey wrote several different series and created many different worlds. She populated these worlds with strong men and women, drawing the readers into the story with memorable characters such as F'lar and Lessa of Benden Weyr and the Rowan and Jeff Raven from FT&T. She created characters that spoke to the readers and gave a glimpse of a future world that we could only dream of.

Anne McCaffrey showed me that a woman could write science fiction as well as a man could, and in some ways better because she tended not to marginalize women like so many science fiction books did in the 60's and 70's. She inspired me to look beyond my world and imagine many others.