Mercedes Lackey

Author · 239 books

Mercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music. "I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' — they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not. "I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes. "I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water: "There's no such thing as 'one, true way'; the only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom, and the chance to do some good—they're the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren't willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race." Also writes as Misty Lackey Author's website

Series

Books

Endgame

The Robin & The Kestrel

Burning Water

Elite

Fierce

To Dye For

A Scandal in Battersea

Wings of Fire

Harvest Moon

Exemplar

Elvenblood

Stoned Souls

The Eagle & the Nightingales

Winds of Fury

Home from the Sea

SKitty

When Darkness Falls

The White Gryphon

Invasion

Silence

The Outstretched Shadow

Eye Spy

Summoned to Tourney

The Snow Queen

Nebula Awards Showcase 2016

Children of the Night

Different Kind of Courage

Freedom Flight

Deliverance of Dragons

Beauty and the Werewolf

Devil Went Down to Georgia

The Talisman

When the Bough Breaks

Storm Rising

Strike a Pose (Secret World Chronicles)

Friendly Fire

Finding the Path

Arrows of the Queen

Jihad

Gryphon in Light

Beyond

Intrigues

Grey

The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy

This Scepter'd Isle

The Waters and the Wild

Balance

Arrow's Flight

Closer to Home

Jolene

A Better Mousetrap

Anything With Nothing

The Fire Rose

Collision

The Cup and the Cauldron

Wings of Fire

Wheels of Fire

Aerie

Born to Run

Blade of Empire

Chrome Circle

The Ship Who Dared

Storm Breaking

Fortune's Fool

The Heralds of Valdemar

The Phoenix Endangered

Small Print

White Bird

The Red Sea

And Less Than Kind

The Shadow of the Lion

Valdemar

Stolen Silver

A Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms Volume 1

Magic's Price

The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley

Bedlam's Bard

Closer to the Heart