71-620: The Dragonlance Chronicles is a trilogy of fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman , which take place in the Dragonlance setting. This series is the first set of Dragonlance novels, and is followed by the Dragonlance Legends series. The three books in the series are Dragons of Autumn Twilight (November 1984), Dragons of Winter Night (July 1985), and Dragons of Spring Dawning (September 1985). The Dragonlance Chronicles novels were based on
142-440: A Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and literature. Weis recalled, "Of course, my mother knew I was going to starve with such a worthless degree", so her mother got her a job as a proofreader at a small publishing company in neighboring Kansas City, Missouri . There, she ascended to editor, learned all about the book industry, and found an agent—crediting the job as an unusually good start for an author. She started writing for
213-542: A 'Transition', and two grouped as 'Ancient Adventures': "The Sunken Land" and "Adept's Gambit", which are both stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The science fiction novel Gather, Darkness followed in 1950. It deals with a futuristic world that follows the Second Atomic Age which is ruled by scientists, until in the throes of a new Dark Age, the witches revolt. In 1951, Leiber was Guest of Honor at
284-410: A book editor. She stayed in the book division, leaving the company as an independent author in 1986. One of her first assignments at TSR was to help coordinate, in a chance meeting with TSR colleague Tracy Hickman , Project Overlord , which was to include a novel and three AD&D modules. Weis and Hickman plotted the novel and hired an author to flesh out story ideas but who lacked grasp of
355-639: A brief, intense correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft , who "encouraged and influenced [Leiber's] literary development" before Lovecraft died in March 1937. Leiber introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in "Two Sought Adventure", his first professionally published short story in the August 1939 edition of Unknown , edited by John W. Campbell . Leiber married Jonquil Stephens on January 16, 1936. Their only child, philosopher and science fiction writer Justin Leiber ,
426-574: A cemetery near her childhood school in Independence. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she wrote children's books about computer graphics, robots, the history of Thanksgiving , and an adventure book at a second-grade reading level for prisoners with low literacy levels. In 1983, Weis applied for a job as a game editor at TSR, Inc. that she saw advertised in Publishers Weekly . TSR turned her down for that position, but hired her as
497-466: A copy of the books while I was in summer school at MU. I literally couldn't put them down! I never found any other fantasy I liked, and just never read any fantasy after Tolkien." She conscientiously avoided buying unauthorized publications of his work, and she related the wars in his fictional world to those in the real world of the 1960s. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 1970 with
568-799: A fallow interregnum from 1954 to 1956), his output (including the 1947 Arkham House anthology Night's Black Agents ) was characterized by Poul Anderson as "a lot of the best science fiction and fantasy in the business". In 1958, the Leibers returned to Los Angeles. By then, he could afford to relinquish his journalistic career and support his family as a full-time fiction writer. Jonquil's death in 1969 precipitated Leiber's permanent relocation to San Francisco and exacerbated his longstanding alcoholism after twelve years of fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous . He gradually regained sobriety, an effort impeded by comorbid barbiturate abuse, over
639-407: A fantasy novel set in modern-day San Francisco, Our Lady of Darkness , which is about a writer of weird tales who must deal with the death of his wife and his recovery from alcoholism. In 1992, the last year of his life, Leiber married his second wife, Margo Skinner, a journalist and poet with whom he had been friends for years. Leiber died a few weeks after a physical collapse while traveling from
710-478: A new trilogy of Dragonlance novels by Weis and Hickman called War of Souls , beginning with Dragons of a Fallen Sun (2000). Wizards of the Coast licensed Dragonlance to Sovereign Press in 2002 to produce role-playing game materials for the setting; Weis and Perrin, with Jamie Chambers and Christopher Coyle, wrote Dragonlance Campaign Setting (2003) which Wizards of the Coast published. Sovereign Press
781-697: A professional writer strained those relationships. After publication of her first book and ten years of marriage, they divorced due to that stress and to different personalities. In 1983, she moved to the resort city of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin , to work for TSR, living in a house converted from a barn. She said she always avoided reading fantasy books since Tolkien to avoid influencing her work, but favored classics like Charles Dickens , Jane Austen , and Sherlock Holmes in any spare time. She often played games at her co-owned store, Game Guild. She cooked for relaxation, and collected cookbooks in her travels, such as recipes of drinks from Dickens books. In 1993, Weis
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#1732780817635852-520: A science fiction convention in London, Ontario , with Skinner. His cause of death was a stroke. He wrote a 100-page-plus memoir, Not Much Disorder and Not So Early Sex , which can be found in The Ghost Light (1984). Leiber's own literary criticism, including several essays on Lovecraft, was collected in the volume Fafhrd and Me (1990). As the child of two Shakespearean actors, Leiber
923-546: A seedy San Francisco residence hotel , its squalor relieved mainly by walls of books". Other reports suggest that Leiber preferred to live simply in the city, spending his money on dining, movies, and travel. In the last years of his life, royalty checks from TSR, Inc. (the makers of Dungeons & Dragons , who had licensed the mythos of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series) were enough in themselves to ensure that he lived comfortably. In 1977, he returned to his original form with
994-421: A series of Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ) game modules. The Chronicles trilogy came about because the designers wanted novels to tell the story of the game world they were creating, something to which TSR, Inc. (TSR) agreed only reluctantly. Soon after Tracy Hickman came to TSR in 1982, management announced the intention to develop his series of dragons based role-playing adventures. Hickman's storyline
1065-474: A spider pencilled large in black on his forehead, thus turning him into an officer of the Spiders, one of the combatants in his Change War stories. "The only other component," Merril writes, "was the Leiber instinct for theatre." The similarity of the names of the father and the son caused some filmographies to incorrectly attribute to Fritz Jr. roles which were in fact played by his father, Fritz Leiber Sr., who
1136-574: A writing team. According to the Kansas City Star profile of major local authors "transformed" by pioneering fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien , the duo sought to recapture the reality-grounded and humanized experience of Tolkien literature but without copying or emulating it, so a reader could imagine meeting their original magical characters in a real place like a bus stop and conversing using pronounceable names. She attributed their writing partnership's longevity to specialization, where Hickman
1207-650: Is centered around the conflict known as the "War of the Lance", in which the Heroes of the Lance march to fight against Verminaard , the lord of the draconians , and the dark goddess Takhisis . While the main events of the war are covered in the original trilogy of books, some later released books occur during the same time period, such as War of the Lance . Several game modules for the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game were also released that expanded on
1278-480: Is one of the fathers of sword and sorcery . Fritz Leiber was born December 24, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois , to the actors Fritz Leiber and Virginia Bronson Leiber. For a time, he seemed inclined to follow in his parents' footsteps; the theater and actors feature in his fiction. He spent 1928 touring with his parents' Shakespeare company (Fritz Leiber & Co.) before entering the University of Chicago , where he
1349-416: The Dragonlance Legends trilogy, published in 1986. Their Dragonlance products included novels, game supplements, short stories, art books, and calendars. The two started moonlighting as book authors, for four hours each evening and through every weekend. Several successful books afforded them to quit TSR and begin writing full-time in 1986. Having left TSR in 1986, Weis and Hickman continued as
1420-712: The Sovereign Stone role-playing game written by her husband Don Perrin with Lester Smith . To support the setting, Weis and Perrin wrote the short story "Shadamehr and the Old Wives Tale" that was published in Dragon #264 (October 1999). Perrin left Sovereign Press in 2004 and Weis founded Margaret Weis Productions . It published an RPG line based on several licenses, including Serenity and Battlestar Galactica , and Ed Greenwood 's new solo venture into roleplaying, Castlemourn . Weis has served on
1491-683: The Horror Writers Association made him an inaugural winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1988 (named in 1987); and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers. Leiber was a founding member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic fantasy authors founded in
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#17327808176351562-723: The Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1970 and 1971 for "Ship of Shadows" (1969) and " Ill Met in Lankhmar " (1970). " Gonna Roll the Bones " (1967), his contribution to Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthology, won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette in 1968. Our Lady of Darkness (1977), originally serialized in short form in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction under
1633-647: The space opera Star of the Guardians novels, which she calls her favorite series that she has written. She published a game based on Mag Force 7 from 1994 to 1996. In the late 1990s, Larry Elmore brought his fantasy world of Loerem to Weis and Hickman, which they wrote as the Sovereign Stone novel trilogy, published by Del Rey . From 2003 to 2005, Weis completed the Dragonvarld trilogy for Tor . In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons "at least in
1704-616: The "Best Novella" Hugo and Nebula Awards. Leiber's last major work, The Knight and Knave of Swords (1991), closed out the series while leaving room for possible sequels. In his last year, Leiber considered allowing other writers to continue the series, but his sudden death made this more difficult. One new Fafhrd and the Mouser novel, Swords Against the Shadowland , by Robin Wayne Bailey , appeared in 1998. The stories influenced
1775-949: The 1960s and led by Lin Carter . Some works by SAGA members were published in Lin Carter 's Flashing Swords! anthologies. Leiber himself is credited with inventing the term sword and sorcery for the particular subgenre of epic fantasy exemplified by his Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. In an appreciation in the July 1969 "Special Fritz Leiber Issue" of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , Judith Merril writes of Leiber's connection with his readers: "That this kind of personal response...is shared by thousands of other readers, has been made clear on several occasions." The November 1959 issue of Fantastic , for instance: Leiber had just come out of one of his recurrent dry spells, and editor Cele Lalli bought up all his new material until there
1846-744: The 1966 novelization of the Clair Huffaker screenplay of Tarzan and the Valley of Gold . Many of Leiber's most acclaimed works are short stories, especially in the horror genre, including "The Smoke Ghost", "The Girl With the Hungry Eyes", and "You're All Alone" (later expanded as The Sinful Ones ). Leiber also challenged the conventions of science fiction through reflexive narratives such as "A Bad Day For Sales" (first published in Galaxy Science Fiction , July 1953), in which
1917-403: The 1979 Schick Sunn Classics documentary The Bermuda Triangle , based on the book by Charles Berlitz . Leiber was heavily influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Graves , John Webster , and Shakespeare in the first two decades of his career. Beginning in the late 1950s, he was increasingly influenced by the works of Carl Jung , particularly by the concepts of the anima and the shadow . In
1988-533: The Coast for breaching a license for a new Dragonlance novel trilogy. Boing Boing reported that "according to the lawsuit, Weis and Hickman agreed with Wizards of the Coast to produce the new novels in 2017, capping off the series and giving fans a final sendoff. But the company pulled the plug in August 2020". The authors see the new trilogy as "the capstone to their life's work". In December 2020, Weis and Hickman filed to voluntarily dismiss without prejudice their lawsuit, and "the filing noted that Wizards of
2059-443: The Coast had not formally answered their lawsuit, nor had they filed for a summary judgement". Weis and Hickman's publishing agent affirmed a few weeks later that a new trilogy of Dragonlance novels was again in development. The first novel of the new series, Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit , was released on August 2, 2022. Weis met her future husband in high school, married after college, and had two children. The mentality of
2130-465: The Gray Mouser. In 1943, his first two novels were serialized in Unknown (the supernatural horror-oriented Conjure Wife , inspired by his experiences on the faculty of Occidental College) and Astounding Science Fiction ( Gather, Darkness ). 1947 marked the publication of his first book, Night's Black Agents , a short story collection containing seven stories grouped as 'Modern Horrors', one as
2201-643: The Heroes of the Lance. They travel to Tarsis, which is destroyed in an ensuing dragon attack, split into two groups, one of which goes to Silvanesti only to find it ravaged by a nightmare caused by a Dragon Orb, the other to Icewall Glacier where they kill a Dragon Highlord and take his Dragon Orb. The former group succeeds in obtaining the Dragon Orb and ending the nightmare. The latter group is attacked as they escape and are stranded on Southern Ergoth, an island where they meet numerous elves. Eventually, they travel to
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2272-617: The Lance. Jason Heller, of The A.V. Club , wrote a positive review of Dragonlance Chronicles , remarking that while the novels were not very original compared to previous fantasy works by J.R.R. Tolkien and Fritz Leiber , they filled a void for new gamers in 1980s by introducing fantasy fiction archetypes in a rich, cohesive setting. The Dragonlance Chronicles have also been adapted as an animated movie entitled Dragons of Autumn Twilight , starring Michelle Trachtenberg , Kiefer Sutherland , Michael Rosenbaum , and Lucy Lawless , and directed by Will Meugniot. "Dragons of Autumn Twilight"
2343-776: The University of Chicago from 1933 to 1934 and again not taking a degree, he remained in Chicago while touring under the stage name of "Francis Lathrop" intermittently with his parents' company and pursuing a literary career. Six short stories later included in the 2010 collection Strange Wonders: A Collection of Rare Fritz Leiber Works carry 1934 and 1935 dates. He also appeared alongside his father in uncredited parts in George Cukor 's Camille (1936), James Whale 's The Great Garrick (1937), and William Dieterle 's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). In 1936, he initiated
2414-682: The World Science Fiction Convention in New Orleans. Further novels followed during the 1950s, and in 1958 The Big Time won the Hugo Award for Best Novel . Leiber continued to publish in the 1960s. His novel The Wanderer (1964) also won the Hugo for Best Novel. In the novel, an artificial planet nicknamed the Wanderer materializes from hyperspace within earth's orbit. The Wanderer's gravitational field captures
2485-449: The action takes place in a small bubble of isolated space-time the size of a theatrical stage, and with only a handful of characters. Judith Merril (in the July 1969 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ) remarks on Leiber's acting skills when the writer won a science fiction convention costume ball. Leiber's costume consisted of a cardboard military collar over turned-up jacket lapels, cardboard insignia, an armband, and
2556-502: The award-winning "The Button Moulder". The short parallel worlds story " Catch That Zeppelin! " (1975) won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story and the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1976. It presents an alternate reality much better than our own, as opposed to the usual parallel universe story depicting a world worse than our own. "Belsen Express" (1975) won the World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction . Leiber
2627-463: The board of directors of Mag Force 7 , Inc., the developer of the Star of the Guardians and Wing Commander Collectible Trading Card Game (CCGs). Weis and Hickman returned to Dragonlance in 1995 with Dragons of Summer Flame . Her next project was a solo novel called The Soulforge , based on her favorite character from the trilogy, the dark wizard Raistlin . Wizards of the Coast published
2698-658: The characters or plots. Having "lived with those characters for months" and threatened by deadline, the two saved the project. She said, "By that time, [Hickman] and I were so into the project that we felt we had to write it." Project Overlord soon became known as Dragonlance . With 4 million sales of the first book in the US and UK, it grew into a trilogy of novels, called the Dragonlance Chronicles , and 15 linked modules . Jean Black , managing editor of TSR's book department, selected Weis and Hickman to write
2769-467: The city of Lankhmar . Fafhrd was based on Leiber himself and the Mouser on his friend Harry Otto Fischer , and the two characters were created in a series of letters exchanged by the two in the mid-1930s. These stories were among the progenitors of many of the tropes of sword and sorcery . Some Fafhrd and Mouser stories were recognized by annual genre awards: "Scylla's Daughter" (1961) was "Short Story" Hugo finalist, and "Ill Met in Lankhmar" (1970) won
2840-422: The city of Tyre a hundred years later, where the two visitors from Nehwon are remembered as local legends. Fischer and Leiber contributed to the original design of the 1976 wargame Lankhmar from TSR . Conjure Wife has been made into feature films four times under other titles: "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes" was filmed under that title by Kastenbaum Films in 1995. (This film is not to be confused with
2911-433: The cult horror film Equinox (1970) directed by Dennis Muren and Jack Woods, Leiber has a cameo appearance as a geologist, Dr. Watermann. In the edited second version of the movie, Leiber has no spoken dialogue but appears in a few scenes. The original version of the movie has a longer appearance by Leiber recounting the ancient book and a brief speaking role; all were cut from the re-release. He also appears as Chavez in
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2982-548: The entire gaming fiction genre". In 2002, she was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in part for Dragonlance . Margaret Weis was born on March 16, 1948, in Independence, Missouri , where she was raised. She discovered heroic fantasy fiction while studying at the University of Missouri (MU). She said, "I read Tolkien when it made its first big sweep in the colleges back in 1966. A girlfriend of mine gave me
3053-520: The events of the war, such as Dragons of Glory and Dragonlance Adventures . A group of old friends and new companions meet and begin their journeys to become the Heroes of the Lance. They enter Xak Tsaroth, find the Disks of Mishakal, are captured, meet Gilthanas, invade Pax Tharkas, meet Elistan , who becomes the first cleric of Paladine, incite a subsequent slave revolt, and kill a Dragon Highlord. The companions continue in their journeys to become
3124-455: The human protagonist yet repelled by human customs in the novel The Wanderer . Leiber's "Gummitch" stories feature a kitten with an I.Q. of 160, just waiting for his ritual cup of coffee so that he can become human, too. His first stories in the 1930s and 40s were inspired by Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos . A notable critic and historian of the wider Mythos, S. T. Joshi, has singled out Leiber's "The Sunken Land" ( Unknown Worlds , February 1942) as
3195-412: The low-paying juvenile book market by appealing to librarians with her high-quality, well-researched books. From 1972 to 1983 she worked for Herald Publishing House as advertising director and subsequently as director of Independence Press , Herald Publishing's trade division from 1981 to 1983. Weis's first book is a biography of the outlaws Frank and Jesse James , because Frank had been buried in
3266-410: The mid-1960s, he began incorporating elements of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces . These concepts are often mentioned in his stories, especially the anima, which becomes a method of exploring his fascination with, but estrangement from, the female. Leiber liked cats, which are featured in many of his stories. Tigerishka, for example, is a cat-like alien who is sexually attractive to
3337-411: The minimum print run of 50,000. The novel's success prompted TSR to publish more copies to meet demand. The novel was written after the completion of the first Dragonlance game modules. Weis and Hickman found this constraining and made the novel too episodic, so they reversed the process for the next books and completed the novels before the related modules were written. Weis and Hickman also authored
3408-496: The moon and shatters it into something like one of Saturn's rings. On Earth, the Wanderer's gravity well triggers earthquakes, tsunamis, and tidal phenomena. The multi-threaded plot follows the exploits of an ensemble cast as they struggle to survive the global disaster. In the same period, Leiber published "Black Gondolier", a short story in which a protagonist uncovers a cosmic conspiracy in which oil from ancient fossils preys upon human beings and human civilizations. Leiber received
3479-447: The most accomplished of the early stories based on Lovecraft's Mythos. Leiber also later wrote several essays on Lovecraft the man, such as "A Literary Copernicus" (1949), the publication of which formed a key moment in the emergence of a serious critical appreciation of Lovecraft's life and work. Leiber's first professional sale was "Two Sought Adventure" ( Unknown , August 1939), which introduced his most famous characters, Fafhrd and
3550-417: The next two decades. Perhaps as a result of his substance abuse , Leiber seems to have suffered periods of penury in the 1970s; Harlan Ellison wrote of his anger at finding that the much-awarded Leiber had to write his novels on a manual typewriter propped up over the sink in his apartment. Marc Laidlaw wrote that, when visiting Leiber as a fan in 1976, he "was shocked to find him occupying one small room of
3621-593: The previous day, and then thinking about the book through the afternoon. She wrote plot ideas and dialogue scraps upon napkins and envelopes until she got a portable computer, and got nervous if unable to work. She said, "I'd love to do mysteries but I don't have the head for them". She mentally, happily, inhabited her own fictional worlds; and upon completion, suffered "a real depression" due to abandoning characters that seemed realer than most people. Her only vacations consisted of hosting fantasy and science fiction conventions worldwide and befriending her fans. Weis wrote
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#17327808176353692-546: The project that they felt they had to write it. Jean Black , the Managing Editor of TSR's Book Department, picked Hickman and Weis to write Dragons of Autumn Twilight and the rest of the Dragonlance Chronicles series. The storyline of the original Dragonlance series had been plotted and outlined before either the novel trilogy or the games were written. The plot of the Dragonlance Chronicles
3763-410: The protagonist, Robie, "America’s only genuine mobile salesrobot", references the title character of Isaac Asimov's idealistic robot story, "Robbie". Questioning Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics , Leiber imagines the futility of automatons in a post-apocalyptic New York City. In his later years, Leiber returned to short story horror in such works as "Horrible Imaginings", "Black Has Its Charms" and
3834-442: The realm of adventure gaming", and said she and Hickman are "basically responsible for the entire gaming fiction genre". Weis was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in 2002, recognized in part for "one game line turned literary sensation: Dragonlance ". In addition to her writing career, Weis was the owner and chief officer of two publishing companies. She formed the company Sovereign Press , with herself as CEO, to publish
3905-483: The series. She said, "To my mind, what made the project so successful was that everyone was involved in it, excited about it, and believed in it." After two years of development, TSR released the game module Dragons of Despair in March 1984 and the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight in November 1984. TSR had doubts about the finished novel's sales potential, and attempted to order 30,000 copies before ordering
3976-771: The shaping of sword and sorcery and other works. Joanna Russ ' stories about thief-assassin Alyx (collected in 1976 in The Adventures of Alyx ) were in part inspired by Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Alyx made guest appearances in two of Leiber's stories. More recently, playing off the visit of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser to our world in Adept's Gambit (set in second century B.C. Tyre), Steven Saylor 's short story "Ill Seen in Tyre" takes his Roma Sub Rosa series hero Gordianus to
4047-487: The struggle against fascism mattered more than his long-held pacifist convictions. He accepted a position with Douglas Aircraft in quality inspection, primarily working on the C-47 Skytrain . Throughout the war, he continued to regularly publish fiction. Thereafter, the family returned to Chicago, where Leiber served as associate editor of Science Digest from 1945 to 1956. During this decade (forestalled by
4118-563: The title "The Pale Brown Thing" (1977), featured cities as the breeding grounds for new types of elementals called paramentals, summonable by the dark art of megapolisomancy , with such activities centering on the Transamerica Pyramid . Its main characters include Franz Westen, Jaime Donaldus Byers, and the magician Thibault de Castries. Our Lady of Darkness won the World Fantasy Award—Novel . Leiber also wrote
4189-411: The tomb of Huma , where they meet Fizban and a silver dragon in disguise. The former group travel to Sancrist Isle, where Sturm becomes a full Knight of Solamnia , a Dragon Orb is shattered, and a dragonlance is forged. The identity of another Dragon Highlord is discovered. The dragons attack, but are driven off with new dragonlances. The group continue and conclude their journey in becoming Heroes of
4260-648: Was a fifteen-year hiatus between novels about the Companions before Dragons of the Dwarven Depths was released. After the original Chronicles novels were completed in 1991, the co-authors had a lot of material about them remaining, but moved on to writing about new characters. In 2004, Weis told Hickman she wanted to return to the main protagonists of the Dragonlance world. When the pair contacted their editors, they enthusiastically agreed. In October 2020, Weis and Tracy Hickman filed suit against Wizards of
4331-570: Was born in 1938. From 1937 to 1941, Fritz Leiber was employed by Consolidated Book Publishing as a staff writer for the Standard American Encyclopedia . In 1941, the family moved to California, where Leiber served as a speech and drama instructor at Occidental College during the 1941–1942 academic year. Unable to conceal his disdain for academic politics as the United States entered World War II , he decided that
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#17327808176354402-557: Was chosen for the Dragonlance books due to the 12 part storyline. Hickman's proposal resulted in the Dragonlance Chronicles , which led to his association with Margaret Weis . Weis was assigned to edit Hickman's "Project Overlord", as it was initially called, a novel intended to be coordinated with a trilogy of AD&D modules. Weis and her new partner, Tracy Hickman, worked to plot the novel; they had hired an author, who didn't work out, but by that time, Weis and Hickman were so into
4473-499: Was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent successful chemotherapy . She stayed busy writing The Seventh Gate during treatment. In 1996, Weis married writer/game designer Don Perrin ; the two later divorced. Fritz Leiber Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( / ˈ l aɪ b ər / LY -bər ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. With writers such as Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock , Leiber
4544-620: Was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received an undergraduate Ph.B. degree in psychology and physiology or biology with honors in 1932. From 1932 to 1933, he worked as a lay reader and studied as a candidate for the ministry, without taking a degree, at the General Theological Seminary in Chelsea, Manhattan , an affiliate of the Episcopal Church . After pursuing graduate studies in philosophy at
4615-515: Was enough [five stories] to fill an issue; the magazine came out with a big black headline across its cover — Leiber Is Back! His legacy has been consolidated by his most famous creations, the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, written over a span of 50 years. The first, "Two Sought Adventure", appeared in Unknown , August 1939. The stories are about an unlikely pair of heroes found in and around
4686-463: Was fascinated with the stage, describing itinerant Shakespearean companies in stories like "No Great Magic" and "Four Ghosts in Hamlet", and creating an actor/producer protagonist for his novel A Specter is Haunting Texas . Although his Change War novel, The Big Time , is about a war between two factions, the "Snakes" and the "Spiders", changing and rechanging history throughout the universe, all
4757-543: Was named the second Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy by participants in the 1975 World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), after the posthumous inaugural award to J. R. R. Tolkien . Next year he won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement . He was Guest of Honor at the 1979 Worldcon in Brighton, England (1979). The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its fifth SFWA Grand Master in 1981;
4828-725: Was released on 15 January 2008. Margaret Weis Margaret Edith Weis ( / w aɪ s / ; born March 16, 1948) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc. , she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the Dragonlance role-playing game (RPG) world. She is founding CEO and owner of Sovereign Press, Inc and Margaret Weis Productions , licensing several popular television and movie franchises to make RPG series in addition to their own. In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons , saying she and Hickman are "basically responsible for
4899-610: Was the evil Inquisitor in the Errol Flynn adventure film The Sea Hawk (1940) and had played in many other movies from 1917 to the late 1950s. It is the elder Leiber, not the younger, who appears in the Vincent Price vehicle The Web (1947) and in Charlie Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947). The younger Leiber can be seen briefly as Valentin in the 1936 film version of Camille starring Greta Garbo . In
4970-547: Was the world builder and storyteller who defines "when the moon rises and which way the winds blow", and she brought characters and substance. He then untangled her unsolvable situations. Weis and Hickman wrote the Darksword trilogy (1986–87) and the seven-book Deathgate Cycle (1988–94) for Bantam Books . Weis's daily workflow consisted of five hours of writing on the computer, starting at 7:30 a.m. , even on holidays, often rewriting anything that had surpassed five hours
5041-433: Was then able to supplement that book additional using material produced under the d20 license. The license expired in 2007. Between 2004 and 2008, Weis wrote a solo novel trilogy titled The Dark Disciple ; the first novel, Amber and Ashes , was published in August 2004. During this period, Weis also co-authored with Hickman The Lost Chronicles trilogy starting with Dragons of the Dwarven Depths in July 2006. There
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