Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lynn McGuire Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: RIP Holly Lisle Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2024 23:01:50 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 71 Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2024 06:01:53 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="41cbd5b97f2f08df130583c953466445"; logging-data="1559909"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18EIu6yt3EnWzqphpqZ6rKYAUVy/cA9Z8M=" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:YNCZ5ooqA6Q8KR2xY+i4KOu3bAg= Content-Language: en-US In-Reply-To: Bytes: 4536 On 9/18/2024 10:16 PM, Ted Nolan wrote: > My sister just informed me that Holly Lisle passed away in August, > something I was very saddened to hear. > > I met her at a Lois McMaster Bujold book signing at a "Waldenbooks" > in Fayetteville NC. She and her then husband were part of an > enthusiastic group talking back and forth with Bujold, and I gradully > came to understand all of them were in a local SF writers' workshop > that Holly led, "Schroedinger's Petshop". I came away from the > signing with an invitation to their next meeting which, after some > hesitation as I am not much of a group-er, I attended. > > I ended up becoming a full member and enjoying the weekly critique > sessions which Holly chairman-ed, and came to understand the greatest > sin in such settings was "fielding", attempting to defend your work > against every criticism rather than just noting what was not working > for others about your piece and taking it to heart. > > Shortly after I joined, Holly broke into publication with _Fire In > The Mist_, and was making regular sales thereafter. She was a > meticulous background background detail-er, keeping notebooks of > maps, history and character studies for all her settings, and at > the time she was throwing off ideas faster than she could write > them up. In particular, she had an idea for a North Carolina series > (we were all in North Carolina) involving demons from Hell being > given a second chance (due to a prayer from a pure soul) to make > good on Earth, and in particular in North Carolina. Her plan was > to write the first book, and plot the rest with those of us in the > group, with other members doing most of the writing for the follow-ups. > This was the "Devil's Point" series, and I had the great privilege > to be chosen for the third book, _Hell On High_. > > I had written the final pages for *a* book after seeing the background > and the fact that it would not be a completely happy ending, and > the fact that I wanted to write about spaceships made it into the > actual book, but as I recall the plotting session which went well > into the morning at her Laurinburg home, it frankly consisted mostly > of Holly saying "How about this?" and me saying "Yeah, that would > be great!". > > In the middle of writing _Hell On High_, I moved to South Carolina, > and Holly moved to Florida, and apart from finishing the book, and > doing some revisions for the indie publication after the rights > reverted to us, we gradually drifted apart. Frankly I was probably > a bit embarrassed that after the book was published, my company > started me on a series of death marches, and I basically stopped > writing entirely. > > My sister, who is still an active writer, followed Holly's blog and > noticed that it was no longer being updated, and searching the > Internet found that Holly had recently passed, something I was very > saddened to hear. I owe Holly for opening a fondly remembered chapter > in my life, for her encouragement, and for her believing I could > actually sit down and write a decent book. > > RIP > > Ted Nolan Sorry to hear that your friend passed away. Cool about the published book: https://www.amazon.com/Hell-High-Devils-Point-Book/dp/1467935328/ I have written five technical manuals with my employees about the software that we write and sell. My customers tell me that my manuals are good for insomnia. https://www.winsim.com/doco.html Lynn