Diane Duane is an American speculative fiction writer. I discovered her years ago through her children’s books and her Star Trek fiction. She has written several professional Star Trek novels which I read back in the days when I was buying those books, but I also read her fan fiction in fanzines, before she was being professionally published, before online sites such as AO3. When I told her on Twitter that I had enjoyed her fan fiction years ago, she replied, “What makes you think I’ve stopped?” So, I’m guessing her work is up on AO3 under a pen name. She isn’t the only well known professional spec fic author who is still writing fan fiction. I remember Kerry Greenwood mentioning at a Sisters In Crime event that she was a Doctor Who fan who was still coming up with ideas for stories set in that universe. Her friend, YA author Jenny Pausacker, sneaked Blake’s 7 character Kerr Avon into one of her children’s novels. It wouldn’t surprise me if her fan stories were also published on AO3.
Diane Duane’s late husband was Peter Morwood, an Irish spec fic author who wrote a wonderful series of fantasy novels set in fairy tale Russia, with Prince Ivan and the Firebird as characters. He also wrote Star Trek fiction; at least one novel was with his wife, The Romulan Way.
Diane also co-wrote a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Where No One Has Gone Before” which was actually based on one of her Star Trek novels, The Wounded Sky.
But she did far more than Star Trek. She is best known for her children’s fiction, the Young Wizards series, which started with a novel called So You Want To Be A Wizard, and went on to be a series of eleven books, plus several more or less set in the Young Wizards universe. I confess to only having read three of that series so far. They have messages and are a bit religious in a C.S. Lewis style. I’m not a huge fan of Lewis but these are very readable.
Several of her novels are available on Amazon, both print and Kindle.
5 comments:
She is a true legend! I follow her tumblr account daily.
I’m working my way up from the bottom of the list and found you, a fellow Aussie. I was an avid Star Trek fan in my teens but have never read any of the fiction to go with it. I do like science fiction although havent read any lot lately. My son gifted me The Hail Mary Project and then I read The Martian both of which I enjoyed. I loved Machines like Me which brought up such a lot of issues about our not so distant future. I look forward to reading your future posts.
I just realised you are writing about women writers and all my examples were male. Please forgive me.
Hi Linda, you are welcome to talk about any SF you want. I mentioned Michael Pryor, who wrote a series of novels that reminded me of the series by Lois McMaster Buold, after all. I have just seen the film of Project Hail Mary, which I loved, and have promised myself to finally get around to The Martian, book and film alike,
.
Hi Debra! She is indeed a legend!
Post a Comment