StarShipSofa No 363 Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb)

November 19, 2014 by Jeremy Szal

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Coming Up…

Fact: News About Rosetta by Katherine Inskip 03:40

Main Fiction: “Old Paint” by Megan Lindholm 26:30

I was only nine when it happened, so I may not have the details absolutely right. But I know the heart of my story, and the heart is always what matters in a tale like mine.

Megan Lindholm was born in Oakland California in 1952, and spent the first ten years of her life in California. She grew up in a house full of books, rich with lovely illustrated fairy tale volumes, the works of Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dumas, Shakespeare and other classics in poetry as well as prose. When she was a preteen, her family moved from the California suburbs to a house on the rural outskirts of Fairbanks, Alaska. It was a huge change in lifestyle, from potato chips and avocado dip to growing potatoes and helping butcher moose. She loved the more rustic lifestyle, the opportunity to have wolf-hybrid dogs and access to undeveloped forest for long runs with her dogs.

In 1970, she married and moved with her husband Fred to Kodiak, Alaska. They lived in a very small village called Chiniak near a missile tracking site. Although she had been a writer since her early teens, at this time she first began to attempt selling her stories. She worked as a village correspondent for the local newspaper, and marketed her stories, with limited success, to children’s magazines. Over the next twelve years, she and her growing family spent time in Alaska, Idaho, and Hawaii. She sold stories to magazines such as Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Highlights for Children, and designed stories to be used in the Science Research Associates (SRA) graduated reading program. She won a grant from the Alaska State Council for the Arts for the coming of age story, “The Poaching” but her interest was turning more and more to fantasy.

In 1982, she sold her first fantasy novel, Harpy’s Flight. Ki and Vandien’s adventures continued in three more volumes (Luck of the Wheels, The Windsingers, and The Limbreth Gate.) Her other works included The Reindeer People, Wolf’s Brother, Alien Earth, Wizard of the Pigeons and a collaboration with Steven Brust for The Gypsy.

In 1995, her career as a novelist ended as she began to write epic fantasy under the pseudonym Robin Hobb, which she continues to do to this day. Her best known work is The Farseer Trilogy, and her most recent work as Hobb is The Fool’s Assassin (2014). As Megan Lindholm, her shorter works such as “A Touch of Lavender” was a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula award. “Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man” was also a Nebula finalist. Over the years, she has continued to write short stories as Megan Lindholm. Other short works recently published include “Neighbors” in the anthology Dangerous Women, edited by George R R Martin and Gardner Dozois. This anthology recently won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

Fact: Looking Back at Genre History by Amy H. Sturgis 01:26:00

Poetry Planet Showcasing the Dwarf Stars Award by Diane Serverson

Narrated by Loulou Szal

Loulou Szal is a wife, mother of two and a school teacher specialising in English and History living in Sydney, Australia. She is an author of children’s and young-adult books and occasionally, a writer of fantasy short stories. Her work has been published at Aurora Wolf Magazine and she is currently fast at work writing more short stories for publication.

In her university years she competed in public speaking and debating competitions, distinguishing herself admirably, as well as dabbling in radio drama. She has narrated podcasts for Antipodean SF, and hopes to do many more podcasts for StarShipSofa in the near future. Find her at: http://loulouszalbooks.wordpress.com/

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