I’m sad to report that author Holly Lisle died last month. She was the author of around 30 novels, mostly fantasy such as the Secret Texts trilogy and the Korre duology, but including space opera like the Cadence Drake and Longview Chronicles and mystery/suspense titles like Last Girl Dancing.
Though she wrote across genres, a common theme in her science fiction and fantasy is characters struggling for freedom from oppressive societies ruled by superstition and greed. That’s a theme the world needs to hear right now. Actually, that’s a theme the world needs to hear almost everywhere and every time.
When Holly broke into traditional publishing in the early 1990s, it was still possible to make a living as a midlist author. But as the New York houses consolidated, she pivoted to indie publishing. Her experience provided some of the many data points that led me to turn away from trad pub early in my career. Younger writers who go indie-first will never encounter “ordering to the net” or the “three book death spiral.” Thanks to Holly, those are some of the career- and series-wreckers I only know by hearsay and never experienced in person.
Survivor, not victim
But even though Holly’s career with New York publishing had some rocky moments as she reported in her blog, she never acted the victim. She always took responsibility for her career. And for her life, too. Despite living through earthquakes and guerrilla war in Central America. Despite a disaster of a first marriage. And on top of that, she encouraged others to take responsibility for their lives too.
Which brings up a significant point about Holly: her generosity. For one, she blogged about writing for thirty-ish years. Also, she shared what she’d learned about fiction writing—art, craft, and business—with students at hollyswritingclasses.com.
There are a lot of fiction writing instructors out there who seem to have decided that creating new stories is too hard and they’d rather try to make a buck off the suckers who are still trying.
Not Holly. She actively wrote new fiction as she developed workshops. Her workshop examples came from her current fiction projects. She walked the walk.
My career benefited more from Holly’s workshops than it did from six weeks at Clarion West.
Getting personal
I never met Holly, but I was fortunate enough to share with her an advance copy of Stealing Fire from the Gods. The book contains a full novel and five short stories that grew from seeds planted in my creative subconscious by exercises in Holly’s How to Find Your Writing Voice workshop. It also contains an introduction about how the stories came to be and thanking Holly for making that possible. I’m very grateful she replied to thank me for the generous and kind introduction.
Creativity. Generosity. Never giving up. That’s my perception of Holly Lisle. She’ll be missed. May she rest in peace.