StarShipSofa 379 Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb)

Coming Up…

Interview with Editor/Publisher of Grimdark Magazine: Adrian Collins, by Jeremy Szal

Main Fiction: “Neighbours” by Megan Lindholm

Originally published in anthology Dangerous Women, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.

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.

Narrated by Pete Nixon:

Pete is a security engineer for Intel Security, a husband, father, and does writing and editing and narrating on the side. He edited, produced, and narrated the short story anthology and podcast “Green Eggs and Horror” which is a horror anthology inspired by the works of Dr. Seuss. The audio version of Green Eggs and Horror is available for free on greeneggsandhorror.com

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