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
The Robin & The Kestrel
1993
Burning Water
1989
Elite
2016
Fierce
Sixteen Authors of Fantasy
2015
To Dye For
2004
A Scandal in Battersea
2017
Wings of Fire
2010
Harvest Moon
2010
Exemplar
2014
Elvenblood
1995
Stoned Souls
2003
The Eagle & the Nightingales
1995
Winds of Fury
1993
Home from the Sea
2012
SKitty
1989
When Darkness Falls
2006
The White Gryphon
1995
Invasion
2011
Silence
2016
The Outstretched Shadow
2003
Eye Spy
2019
Summoned to Tourney
1992
The Snow Queen
2008
Nebula Awards Showcase 2016
2016
Children of the Night
1990
Different Kind of Courage
1985
Freedom Flight
1992
Beauty and the Werewolf
2011
Devil Went Down to Georgia
2005
The Talisman
1990
When the Bough Breaks
1993
Storm Rising
1995
Strike a Pose (Secret World Chronicles)
2011
Friendly Fire
1993
Finding the Path
2014
Arrows of the Queen
1987
Jihad
1993
Gryphon in Light
2023
Beyond
2021
Intrigues
2010
Grey
1997
This Scepter'd Isle
2004
Balance
1986
Arrow's Flight
1987
Closer to Home
2014
Jolene
2020
A Better Mousetrap
1999
Anything With Nothing
2023
The Fire Rose
1995
Collision
2014
The Cup and the Cauldron
1992
Wings of Fire
1991
Wheels of Fire
1992
Aerie
2006
Born to Run
1992
Blade of Empire
2017
Chrome Circle
1994
Storm Breaking
1996
Fortune's Fool
2007
The Heralds of Valdemar
1990
The Phoenix Endangered
2008
Small Print
1994
White Bird
2011
The Red Sea
2020
And Less Than Kind
2008
The Shadow of the Lion
2002
Valdemar
2023
Stolen Silver
2010
Magic's Price
1990
The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley
2022
Bedlam's Bard
1992
Closer to the Heart
2015
Four & Twenty Blackbirds
1997
Sword Sworn
1986
The Case of the Spellbound Child
2019
This Rough Magic
2003
Once Upon a Tale
2012
Winds of Fate
1991
Grey's Ghost
2005
The Mage Wars
2013
Beyond World's End
2001
Passages
2020
To Light a Candle
2004
Fortress of Frost and Fire
1993
Magic 101
2014
Closer to the Chest
2016
Take a Thief
2001
Owlknight
1999
Briarheart
2021
A Tail of Two SKittys
1994
Elvenborn
2002
Hallowmass Night
2010
Sword of Ice
1997
The Serpent's Shadow
2001
The Enemy of My Enemy
1989
Dead Reckoning
2012
Last Rights
1993
The Making of a Legend
2011
The Fairy Godmother
2004
Oathblood
1998
Vows and Honor
1993
Nightside
1989
Phoenix and Ashes
2004
Elemental Magic
All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters
2012
Changes
2011
The Gates of Sleep
2002
Arrow's Fall
1988
On the Other Side
2010
A Woman's Weapon
1992
Magic's Promise
1990
Elvendude
1994
The Sleeping Beauty
2010
Exile's Honor
2002
Reserved for the Cat
2007
Oathbreakers
1989
Magic's Pawn
1989
The Hunt
2010
Tales of the Witch World 1
1987
Revolution
2013
Music to My Sorrow
2005
Hunter
2015
Crown of Vengeance
2012
Sanctuary
2005
Reboots
2011
The One Left Behind
2014
Storm Warning
1994
![Killer Byte [Diana Tregarde series] book cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1267315230i/7193015.jpg)
Killer Byte [Diana Tregarde series]
1994
By Slanderous Tongues
2007
Breaking Silence
2020
From a High Tower
2015
The Black Gryphon
1994
Object Lesson
2010
World Well Lost
2010
Firebird
1996
Brightly Burning
2000
Exile's Valor
2003
Dragon's Teeth
1988
The Bartered Brides
2018
Dragon's Teeth
2013
Gwenhwyfar
The White Spirit
2009
The House of the Four Winds
2014
Redoubt
2012
The Phoenix Transformed
2008
Apex
2017
Spirits White as Lightning
2001
No True Way
2014
The Silver Gryphon
1996
Spy, Spy Again
2020
A Tale of Heroes
1987
Echo One
Tales from the Secret World Chronicles
2020
Victories
2014
Much Fall of Blood
2010
World Divided
2012
The Ship Who Searched
1992
The Last of the Season
1987
The Wizard of Karres
2004
Burdens of the Dead
2013
Foundation
2008
The River's Gift
1999
Legacies
2010
A Cast of Corbies
1994
Satanic, Versus
1990
Landscape of the Imagination
2010
Aliens Ate My Pickup
2012
Fiddler Fair
1998
Wet Wings
2013
Prison of Souls
1993
Conspiracies
2011
Owlflight
1997
The Wizard of London
2005
Run Silent, Run Deep
2014
Castle of Deception
1992
Arcanum 101
2012
A Study in Sable
2016
Blood Red
2014
Reboots
Diabolical Streak
2014
Sacrifices
2013
Knight of Ghosts and Shadows
1990
Poetic License
1994
Bastion
2013
The Phoenix Unchained
2007
Unnatural Issue
2011
One Good Knight
2006
The Chrome Borne
1999
The Free Bards
1997
The Waters and the Wild
2019
A Tangled Web
2012
Dragon in Distress
1995
Reboots
Undead Can Dance
2021
Joust
2003
Winds of Change
1992
The Secret World Chronicle
2007
Alta
2004
Shipscat Collection
2012
By the Sword
1991
Waiting On
2012
Mad Maudlin
2003
Set a Thief
1991
Sacred Ground
1994
Jinx High
1991
