View source for Mercedes Lackey

{{short description|American writer of fantasy novels (born 1950)|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| image = Mercedes Lackey by Gage Skidmore.jpg
| name = Mercedes Lackey
| caption = Lackey at the 2018 Phoenix Comic Fest
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1950|6|24|mf=y}}<ref name="pringle">{{cite book |last=Corran |first=Mary |chapter=Lackey, Mercedes (Ritchie) |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781558622050 |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-last=Pringle |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Pringle |title=St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers |publisher=St. James Press |publication-place=New York |year=1996 |isbn=1-55862-205-5 |oclc=33666450 | pages=345–346}}</ref>
| birth_place = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date = 
| death_place = 
| occupation = Novelist, short story writer
| alma_mater = [[Purdue University]]
| period = 1985–present
| genre = [[Fantasy]]
| subject = <!--nonfiction, if easy to label-->
| movement = 
| notableworks = Valdemar series
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Anthony Lackey|1972|1990|reason=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Larry Dixon (fantasy artist)|Larry Dixon]]|1990}}{{r|pringle}}
}}
| website = {{URL|mercedeslackey.com}}
}}
'''Mercedes Ritchie Lackey''' (born June 24, 1950) is an American writer of [[Fantasy literature|fantasy novels]]. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of [[Velgarth]], mostly in and around the country of [[Valdemar (fictional country)|Valdemar]].  Her Valdemar novels include interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social [[mores]].

Her other main world is similar to Earth, but it includes clandestine populations of elves, mages, vampires, and other mythical beings. The ''Bedlam's Bard'' books describe a young man with the power to work magic through music; the ''SERRAted Edge'' books are about racecar driving elves; and the ''Diana Tregarde'' thrillers center on a [[Wiccan]] who combats evil.

She has also published several novels re-working well-known fairy tales set in a mid-19th to early 20th century setting in which magic is real, although hidden from the mundane world.  These novels explore issues of ecology, social class, and gender roles.

Lackey has published over 140 books and writes novels at a rate of 5.5 per year on average. She has been called one of the "most prolific science fiction and fantasy writers of all time."<ref>{{cite web | last1=Stamm | first1=Emily | last2=Anders | first2=Charlie Jane | title=11 Most Prolific Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors of All Time | website=io9 | date=October 11, 2013 | url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/11-most-prolific-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors-of-1443957263 | access-date=February 4, 2021 | archive-date=January 22, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122033411/https://io9.gizmodo.com/11-most-prolific-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors-of-1443957263 | url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2021, Lackey was named the 38th [[Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award|Damon Knight Grand Master]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Mercedes Lackey Named the 38th SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master | website=The Nebula Awards® | date=November 4, 2021 | url=https://nebulas.sfwa.org/mercedes-lackey-named-the-38th-sfwa-damon-knight-memorial-grand-master/ | access-date=November 4, 2021}}</ref>

==Background==
Lackey was born in [[Chicago]].{{r|pringle}} Her birth prevented her father from being called to serve in the [[Korean War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mercedeslackey.com/biography.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130129110907/http://www.mercedeslackey.com/biography.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 29, 2013 |title=Biography |publisher=Mercedes Lackey |date=1950-06-24 |access-date=2012-09-13 }}</ref>

She placed her meeting with [[science fiction]] at age 10 or 11, when she picked up her father's copy of [[James H. Schmitz]]'s ''[[Agent of Vega]]''. She then read [[Andre Norton]]'s ''Beast Master'' and ''Lord of Thunder'' and continued to read all of Norton's works. Lackey had difficulties obtaining enough interesting books from the public library to sate her passion for reading.  She wrote for herself but without real direction or purpose until she attended [[Purdue University]].  Lackey graduated from Purdue in 1972.<ref>{{cite web | title=Mercedes Lackey Book List | website=FictionDB | url=http://www.fictiondb.com/author/mercedes-lackey~21146.htm | access-date=February 4, 2021}}</ref>

While at Purdue, she took a one-on-one class of English Literature Independent Studies with a professor who was a fellow [[science fiction fandom|science fiction fan]]. He helped her analyze books she enjoyed and then use that knowledge. Lackey then encountered [[fan fiction]], which further encouraged her writing. She began publishing work in [[science fiction fanzines]] and then discovered [[filk]] and had some filk lyrics published by [[Off Centaur Publications]].

==Professional sales==
[[File:Mercedes Lackey 1a.jpg|right|thumb|Lackey signing autographs at [[CONvergence]], 2008]]

Lackey submitted a story to ''[[Sword and Sorceress series|Sword and Sorceress]]'', then sold the rewritten story to ''Fantasy Book Magazine''. Her first sale was to ''Friends of Darkover''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Winokur |first=Jon |date=2019-07-16 |title=Mercedes Lackey |url=https://advicetowriters.com/interviews/mercedes-lackey |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=ADVICE TO WRITERS |language=en-US}}</ref>

She met [[C. J. Cherryh]] through [[Filk music|filk]]. Cherryh helped Lackey through 17 rewrites of 'Arrows'. During this time, [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]] included Lackey's short stories in an anthology, ''Friends of Darkover''. Lackey claims to have been writing so much during this time that she had no social life at all. She divorced Tony Lackey, and eventually married Larry Dixon.<ref name=FantasticFiction>{{cite web | title=Mercedes Lackey | publisher=Fantastic Fiction | url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/mercedes-r-lackey | access-date=February 4, 2021}}</ref>

===Stance on fanfiction===
Despite getting her own start as a fanfiction author, she and her agent forbade fan fiction based on her own books for many years, whether distributed offline or online. Lackey stated on her website<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mercedeslackey.com/am_conventions.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130128153334/http://www.mercedeslackey.com/am_conventions.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 28, 2013 |title=Mercedes Lackey Official Website, Ask Misty |publisher=Mercedeslackey.com |access-date=2012-09-13 }}</ref> that this was due to the 1992 Marion Zimmer Bradley fan fiction affair, when a fan accused Bradley of copying the fan's work and demanded writing credit and remuneration.<ref>{{cite web|author=Joseph C. McKenzie |url=http://www.fanworks.org/writersresource/?tool=fanpolicy&action=define&authorid=53 |title=Fanworks, Marion Zimmer Bradley |publisher=Fanworks.org |access-date=2012-09-13| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603071925/http://www.fanworks.org/writersresource/?tool=fanpolicy&action=define&authorid=53 | archive-date=June 3, 2013}}</ref> After several years, Lackey's policy permitted offline fanfic, but only if the author got a release form from Mercedes Lackey that said the author acknowledged that they were using characters that belong to Mercedes Lackey and that the author's work essentially became Mercedes Lackey's property to prevent "infringing on my right to make a living from my own imagination". As of 2009 this policy changed, permitting fan fiction to be licensed as derivative fiction under the [[Creative Commons]] umbrella.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mercedeslackey.com/news.html |title='News' at author's website |publisher=Mercedeslackey.com |access-date=2012-09-13 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Excerpt from the interview in the November 2010 issue of Locus Magazine |url=https://locusmag.com/2010/11/mercedes-lackey-making-fun/ |website=locusmag.com |date=10 November 2010 |access-date=4 June 2023}}</ref>

==Personal life==
She married Anthony Lackey in 1972, and they divorced in 1990. In 1990, she met [[Larry Dixon (fantasy artist)|Larry Dixon]] at Circle Ouroboros convention in Meridian, MS.  They married in 1992. {{r|pringle}} The couple live outside of [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]].<ref>''Valdemar Companion'', p. 68</ref>

===Other interests===
{{BLP sources section|date=February 2021}}
Lackey and Dixon have in the past worked in [[raptor rehabilitation]]. She refers to her various [[parrot]]s as her "feathered children". The afterwords to some of her books refer to rehabilitation and [[falconry]], and this interest has influenced and informed her writing. She also enjoys [[beadwork]], costuming, and [[needlework]]. She claims, however, to be a "wretched housekeeper, and by and large an indifferent cook"<ref>''Valdemar Companion'', p. 64</ref> Besides this, she does radar-reading during tornado season. She helps support the [[Alex Foundation]].

Historically, Lackey was active in the [[filk]]ing community. She was a major contributor to an early album of space filk, ''[[Minus Ten and Counting]]''. She has won five [[Pegasus Award]]s, mostly for her songwriting.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/people/mercedes-lackey.html| title = Ovff.org}}</ref> She was also active in the [[Society for Creative Anachronism]] and belongs to the [[Great Dark Horde]].

She participates in The Stellar Guild series published by Phoenix Pick. The series pairs bestselling authors like Lackey with lesser known authors in science fiction and fantasy to help provide additional visibility to them.

==Related writers==
Mercedes Lackey was a protégée of [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]] and got her start writing short stories in Bradley's story collections. Other mentors include writers C. J. Cherryh and [[Andre Norton]], along with her editor, [[Betsy Wollheim|Elizabeth (Betsy) Wollheim]] of [[DAW Books]].

Her earlier Velgarth novels are all solo projects, but later volumes in the Valdemar saga are illustrated by her husband, Larry Dixon, and in many of her latest works he is also credited as co-author. Many of her other novels are collaborations. She has worked with fantasy authors Andre Norton (such as the Halfblood Chronicles), Marion Zimmer Bradley (such as ''Rediscovery'' and ''Tigers Burning Bright''), [[Anne McCaffrey]] (such as ''[[The Ship Who Searched]]''), and [[Piers Anthony]] (''If I Pay Thee Not in Gold''). She has most recently written ''The Obsidian Trilogy'' with historian [[James Mallory (author)|James Mallory]], a [[historical fantasy]] series about an "alternative" [[Elizabeth I]] with romance writer [[Roberta Gellis]], and the ''[[Heirs of Alexandria series]]'' with [[Dave Freer]] and [[Eric Flint]].<ref name=FantasticFiction />

== Adaptations ==

=== Television and film ===
On August 3, 2021, [[Deadline Hollywood|Deadline]] reported that Radar Pictures had acquired the television rights to the Valdemar novels and that [[Ted Field]] would be Executive Producer on the series. The first season is being developed as an adaptation of the [[Last Herald Mage trilogy|Last Herald-Mage trilogy]]. [[Kit Williamson]] and Brittany Cavallaro have been announced as writers and producers for the show.<ref>{{Cite web|last=White|first=Peter|date=2021-08-03|title='Valdemar Universe' Fantasy Book Series In The Works For TV From Kit Williamson, Brittany Cavallaro & Radar Pictures|url=https://deadline.com/2021/08/valdemar-universe-fantasy-book-tv-series-1234807994/|access-date=2022-01-05|website=Deadline|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{Main|Mercedes Lackey bibliography}}

==References==
{{Reflist |25em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Bartel |first=Julie |year=2005 |chapter=Lackey, Mercedes Ritchie |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/continuumencyclo0000unse_j1f5 |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-last=Cullinan |editor-first=Bernice E. |display-editors=etal |title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Young Adult Literature |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-0-82-641710-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Winters |first=Louis J. |year=1994 |chapter=Lackey, Mercedes R. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury0000unse_h0e3 |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-last=Berger |editor-first=Laura Standley |title=Twentieth-Century Young Adult Writers |publisher=St. James Press |isbn=978-1-55-862202-9}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{official website}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040407145224/http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=mlackey Baen catalog of books and ebooks by Mercedes Lackey]
** [https://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/1803?page=1&pageSize=30&filter=name&dir=ASC Current page]; both pages include links to free, legal samples
* {{ISFDB name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lackey, Mercedes}}
[[Category:Novels by Mercedes Lackey| ]]
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American women novelists]]
[[Category:American fantasy writers]]
[[Category:American women short story writers]]
[[Category:Filkers]]
[[Category:Lambda Literary Award winners]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Novelists from Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Purdue University alumni]]
[[Category:American women science fiction and fantasy writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from Chicago]]
[[Category:Writers of Sherlock Holmes pastiches]]