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From: Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: RIP Holly Lisle
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2024 21:05:57 -0400
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On 9/18/2024 11:16 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> 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 about her passing!

I didn't realize that she wrote paranormal suspense in the mid-2000s and 
that it was later republished as by "Kate Aeon". I have added the 
missing titles to her ISFDB bibliography.