Well-regarded SFF authors who are still alive but no longer writing

Roxxsmom

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This is something I've been thinking about lately. There are some SFF writers I've enjoyed over the years, ones who seemed to have a popular following, even if they weren't writing NYT blockbusters. One I'm thinking of even got some of the top awards in SFF, but hasn't published a new novel since the 90s. These writers have/had a presence on the web and some of them still post on twitter. But they haven't written novels in years. They are still alive and young enough they could still be writing, but no new novels for years, even decades. I get that publishing is brutal, and sometimes even moderately successful authors lose their contracts or fail to obtain new ones, but with self publishing now an option, it seems odd that they haven't written anything new in years.

I have a couple of specific names in mind, writers who are among my all-time favorites, though I don't know if it's cool to name names here, because maybe it's not respectful of their privacy.

What might lead a reasonably successful writer with a number of well-regarded books to stop writing? Before I wrote myself, I would have only been asking as a disappointed fan who wished for more books. Now I have to ask, is writer's block something that can strike at any time in one's career? Or do certain writers get blacklisted by the industry, so they can no longer publish and feel their odds at self publishing success are poor?

Anyone else have favorite writers who has just inexplicably stopped writing?

Or maybe I'm just asking because my own wells of creativity, or of confidence in my own ability to muddle through to the end of an idea, have run pretty dry lately.
 
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lizmonster

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What might lead a reasonably successful writer with a number of well-regarded books to stop writing? Before I wrote myself, I would have only been asking as a disappointed fan who wished for more books. Now I have to ask, is writer's block something that can strike at any time in one's career? Or do certain writers get blacklisted by the industry, so they can no longer publish and feel their odds at self publishing success are poor?

After Tanith Lee's death, there were a lot of "what the @#$%! happened to her career?" discussions.

When I was in high school, I grabbed everything of hers I could find. And then she stopped publishing, and I just assumed she'd stopped writing. Apparently that wasn't true - she just couldn't sell anything (or anything much).

I was at a con where they were talking about it, and the general consensus seemed to be her sales lost momentum and publishers no longer wanted to invest in her. Before I got my own glimpse behind the curtain, that seemed absurd - she was a buy-on-sight author for me, and all of my SFF-reading friends. Now, though, it makes perfect sense, but I still think it's a shame.
 

Roxxsmom

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After Tanith Lee's death, there were a lot of "what the @#$%! happened to her career?" discussions.

When I was in high school, I grabbed everything of hers I could find. And then she stopped publishing, and I just assumed she'd stopped writing. Apparently that wasn't true - she just couldn't sell anything (or anything much).

I was at a con where they were talking about it, and the general consensus seemed to be her sales lost momentum and publishers no longer wanted to invest in her. Before I got my own glimpse behind the curtain, that seemed absurd - she was a buy-on-sight author for me, and all of my SFF-reading friends. Now, though, it makes perfect sense, but I still think it's a shame.

That's indeed weird and frustrating. I know so many people who grew up reading and loving her books it's odd she couldn't sell them anymore. I guess self publishing came too late for her, but I don't know about the others.

One writer whose books I dearly love has confessed to struggling with writer's block, or writer's pause, since finishing a long-running series. I wonder if spending too much time inside the heads of a set of characters makes it hard to change gears and start from scratch with new ones.

It feels to me like SFF is more exacting than it was 20 years or so ago, with more interest in writers who have some literary chops. It seems like everyone wants stuff that's different in terms of setting, culture etc. than what has defined the genre for so long. And there's a lot more interest in people writing from diverse perspectives as a member of said cultures and communities (and not as a white, straight etc. person). This is something I heartily support, but it can be intimidating if one doesn't have that background, knowledge and experience. It's also intimidating to those of us who have no literary aspirations (as a writing style) at all and most love novels told in more straightforward prose from the viewpoint of a particular character.

I don't know if this would intimidate established writers, though. Do they ever feel like they have to shift their literary voice and style to stay relevant?
 

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There are writers whose books didn't sell as well as they thought they might who began again using a pen name.

It's a lot more common than people realize.
 

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I wonder if some of them are still writing in other genres just under different pen names? Or are these people well known enough that their other names are more or less known?
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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I know of a couple of formerly SF writers who switched genre, because SF was too small of a market. I can also think of a couple of authors who are faves of mine, who just don't produce books very often. Andy Weir went how many years between The Martian and Artemis?

I guess my point is that it can be hard to tell if an author has stopped producing or is just a slow producer (GRRM, anyone?).
 

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David Zindell seems not to write much any more, which is a shame, because the Neverness series is a rare Dune-clone I liked better than Dune. And I like Dune very much, thank you.
 

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I can't speak for anyone but myself obviously, but I think there are two types of authors. Those who tell stories so they have something to write, and those who write so they can tell their stories. For those authors of the second type, once they've told the stories they want to tell, they're done. For myself, I just have a story to tell (OK, a series of related stories, but still) and once the series is done and published then I don't expect I'll be writing any more books unless another story inspiration hits me. I don't look for something to write, something to write finds me, and I can only assume that it's the same for some percentage of other writers.
 

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After Tanith Lee's death, there were a lot of "what the @#$%! happened to her career?" discussions.

When I was in high school, I grabbed everything of hers I could find. And then she stopped publishing, and I just assumed she'd stopped writing. Apparently that wasn't true - she just couldn't sell anything (or anything much).

I was at a con where they were talking about it, and the general consensus seemed to be her sales lost momentum and publishers no longer wanted to invest in her. Before I got my own glimpse behind the curtain, that seemed absurd - she was a buy-on-sight author for me, and all of my SFF-reading friends. Now, though, it makes perfect sense, but I still think it's a shame.

Tanith Lee was being published, and some earlier works were being re-published, up until the day she died, with Storm Constantine's Immanion Press. Granted, it wasn't DAW, which published much of her earlier work. Also, number of her juvenile series and childrens' books were published by more mainstream presses.

I think themes in fantasy just changed over the years and her signature style, her "brand," wasn't selling anymore. Because readers first wanted Eddings, Weisman & Hick, and Jordan, then gritty, hyper-realistic grimdark.

As for the SFF writers who seem not to be publishing anymore, they may have just switched genres. Nancy Springer, for example, had a string of fantasy novels in the late 1970s, then nothing. But she continued in mysteries and juveniles for many years with the occasional fantasy.

Sometimes there are more plebian reasons. One of my favorite writers, Joan D. Vinge, was in a car accident and had a traumatic brain injury, so that's why we haven't heard from Tiamat and the HEgemony for a while. Recently, though, she's recovered enough to do movie tie-ins novelizations again.
 

Roxxsmom

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There are writers whose books didn't sell as well as they thought they might who began again using a pen name.

It's a lot more common than people realize.

I can think of a couple of pretty successful writers that this (their earlier novels didn't sell that well) happened to: Katherine Addison, for instance, is Sarah Monette, and Kate Elliot is Alis A. Rasmussen. And of course, Robin Hobb is Megan Lindholm.

One writer I enjoyed who seems to have stopped publishing was Susan Dexter. Her books were more YA, back before they really made much of a distinction between YA and "regular" fantasy titles in bookstores. Not heavy stuff, but enjoyable. Eve Forward also wrote a couple of fun books and stopped after.

Lynn Flewelling seems to be in "writer's pause," as she calls it, ever since finishing the Nightrunner books. I hope she writes more someday, as I enjoyed those titles, and I thought (in spite of some of the flaws with how the experience of being transgender was portrayed) thought the Tamir books stand among some of the finest in the genre. She's fairly active on Twitter still, but her web site is "dead."

And I haven't seen anything by Vonda McIntyre for a long time. I really enjoyed her books. She still has a web site and tweets occasionally, but seems to have retired from writing (unless she has a very well-hidden pen name).

I don't know if it's because I read more female SFF writers than men, or if there really is a gender bias, but it seems like more reasonably successful female SFF writers fall off the radar than men. Heck, even some very successful ones (if success means selling well and winning awards) seem to get forgotten. Just now, in another forum, someone said it was a shame there were no fantasy novels based on Spain. Lois McMaster Bujold anyone? He'd never heard of her :Headbang:

And all those lists of SFF everyone should read that have very few of the many great books by women on them :(

Sometimes a promising book never gets its sequel because a publisher goes under or something. The Architect of Sleep by Stephen Boyett is an example. I was so mad, because it ended on a cliffhanger and the sequel never came.
 
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Roxxsmom

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I know of a couple of formerly SF writers who switched genre, because SF was too small of a market. I can also think of a couple of authors who are faves of mine, who just don't produce books very often. Andy Weir went how many years between The Martian and Artemis?

That's a good point. I think Barbara Hambley writes, or has written, books in other genres. Sherri S Tepper, who passed away a while back, also wrote mysteries under a different name (BJ Oliphant). I read SFF more than most other genres, so I tend to miss such novels, or not be as interested in them.

I guess my point is that it can be hard to tell if an author has stopped producing or is just a slow producer (GRRM, anyone?).

That can also be true. And given that most genre fiction writers who are mid listers, or even bestsellers within the genre (but not NYT type bestsellers) can't support themselves with their work unless they can really crank out several titles a year (and when this happens, the quality does suffer, as has happened with some writers I used to love but whose work became, in my opinion, rather repetitive or formulaic), most have day jobs that take time away from their writing (and they may also genuinely love these day jobs as well).

In Martin's case, I don't think this is the true (I'm guessing he lives comfortably on the proceeds from ASoIaF, especially since it became a hit TV show) but I wonder if he felt kind of like he wrote himself into a corner with all the interwoven plots, and then came the pressure to "finish" the series for the TV show. And when he couldn't, the TV writers took it in their own direction, which is likely not where he'd wanted to go. So how does he finish it now? If it's just like the TV series, it won't be his anymore. But if it's very different, then fans who now think the TV show plot and character arcs are canon will be disappointed and annoyed. It's a nice problem for a SFF writer to have, in one sense, but it means your world and characters aren't really yours anymore.
 

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Just now, in another forum, someone said it was a shame there were no fantasy novels based on Spain. Lois McMaster Bujold anyone? He'd never heard of her :Headbang:

This other person must not have looked very hard! Guy Gabriel Kay also wrote a fantasy based on Spain.

And all those lists of SFF everyone should read that have very few of the many great books by women on them :(

For a corrective, James Nicoll has put together a whole series of lists "Twenty Core [name your subgenre] Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves," in which 18 or 19 of the 20 are genuinely good & important works by women.
 

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This other person must not have looked very hard! Guy Gabriel Kay also wrote a fantasy based on Spain.

Yes, and Kay had been mentioned already earlier in the same thread, because it started with someone asking if it was possible to sell fantasy that wasn't set in something resembling medieval north-western Europe.

I'm amazed at how little-read many fans of the genre they want to write in are, but I digress.



For a corrective, James Nicoll has put together a whole series of lists "Twenty Core [name your subgenre] Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves," in which 18 or 19 of the 20 are genuinely good & important works by women.

There are starting to be more talk about some of the female giants of the genre in many circles, but far too many of the lists based on polling fans for their recommendations come out androgen heavy. This is true, even when there's a focus on more recent titles. Everyone seems to keep recommending Sanderson, Rothfuss, Eddings, Abercrombie, Lawrence, Lynch, GRRM, Erikson, Gaiman, and so on over and over and over. Some guys get forgotten too. No one seems to talk about Brent Weeks or Mark Lawrence anymore either, even though they were big a few years back and are, as far as I know, still writing, but female authors seem to get forgotten faster for the most part.
 
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lizmonster

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Tanith Lee was being published, and some earlier works were being re-published, up until the day she died, with Storm Constantine's Immanion Press. Granted, it wasn't DAW, which published much of her earlier work. Also, number of her juvenile series and childrens' books were published by more mainstream presses.

Some of her stuff is finally coming out in ebook, too.

Her disappearance (or "disappearance," if you prefer) was enough of a phenomenon that I attended multiple con panels on the subject for a couple of years after her death. I know in my small town, being dropped by DAW meant I didn't see her work anymore, full stop.

I think themes in fantasy just changed over the years and her signature style, her "brand," wasn't selling anymore. Because readers first wanted Eddings, Weisman & Hick, and Jordan, then gritty, hyper-realistic grimdark.

This probably explains why I moved away from fantasy around the same time. :)
 

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Has Holly Lisle continued to produce work? I just don't know.

caw

She's aggressively self-publishing and has a flourishing how to write business.
 

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I wonder if some of them are still writing in other genres just under different pen names? Or are these people well known enough that their other names are more or less known?

There are a number of not-connected-pen-names from authors, and authors who write in multiple genres.
 

amergina

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This other person must not have looked very hard! Guy Gabriel Kay also wrote a fantasy based on Spain.

This is a serious tangent, but I experienced so much deja vu while visiting the Alhambra in Grenada. The Lions of Al-Rassan is one of my favorite novels and Kay's descriptions of the palace are on target.
 

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I heard John Varley is writing a sequel to The Golden Globe, after more than 20 years. He's of course best known for spending a decade in the wilderness prior to that in Hollywood, trying to turn his short story Air Raid into a movie. It didn't end well.

In his case, though, he actually has been writing, but it's been a long series of Heinlein-juvenile pastiche novels I'm not the least bit interested in. So ... it's like he hasn't been writing for me, I guess. I'm looking forward to a further story in the Ophiuchi Hotline/Steel Beach/Golden Globe sequence.
 

Roxxsmom

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I heard John Varley is writing a sequel to The Golden Globe, after more than 20 years. He's of course best known for spending a decade in the wilderness prior to that in Hollywood, trying to turn his short story Air Raid into a movie. It didn't end well.

In his case, though, he actually has been writing, but it's been a long series of Heinlein-juvenile pastiche novels I'm not the least bit interested in. So ... it's like he hasn't been writing for me, I guess. I'm looking forward to a further story in the Ophiuchi Hotline/Steel Beach/Golden Globe sequence.

Varley. That rings a bell. He's the one who wrote the books about the ring-shaped, living space station called Gaia, right? Titan and its sequels? I read those back in the early 80s, I think.
 
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Albedo

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Varley. That rings a bell. He's the one who wrote the books about the ring-shaped, living space station called Gaia, right? Titan and its sequels? I read those back in the early 80s, I think.
Yeah. Titan's great. It blew my tiny teenage mind when I read it. Better Big Dumb Object fiction than Rendevouz with Rama! Heroic lesbian protagonists! The best "meeting God" scene in SF! The sequels are ... varying. All I remember about them is lots and lots of weird sex, and I think it's the third book that has a fifty foot tall Marilyn Monroe clone. It's the third that's basically an extended parody of the film industry, right? I think he wrote that one when he was in development hell on Millennium.

His Eight Worlds series is better, IMO. The Golden Globe is one of my favourite books.
 

Roxxsmom

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Yeah. Titan's great. It blew my tiny teenage mind when I read it. Better Big Dumb Object fiction than Rendevouz with Rama! Heroic lesbian protagonists! The best "meeting God" scene in SF! The sequels are ... varying. All I remember about them is lots and lots of weird sex, and I think it's the third book that has a fifty foot tall Marilyn Monroe clone. It's the third that's basically an extended parody of the film industry, right? I think he wrote that one when he was in development hell on Millennium.

His Eight Worlds series is better, IMO. The Golden Globe is one of my favourite books.

Yeah, I remember it. Strong female leads, though there was a kind of male gaze treatment of the same-sex relationships.

I wish Vonda McIntyre was still writing. Her last book was The Moon and The Sun back in the 90s, which I rather liked. I heard they were going to make a movie of it, but it never happened. I thought of it just the other day, because they were interviewing one of the actors who is in the movie The Shape of Water which is about a captive humanoid sea creature, and it made me think of McIntyre's novel (not the same story, since The Shape of Water is set in the 60s, and The Moon and Sun was set in Louis XIV's court).

I liked Dreamsnake and her Starfarers novels too. Really cool spaceship and aliens.
 
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Sometimes folks just wear out or run dry.
Sometimes folks may feel like a thing they enjoy still has too much effort/time involved to continue doing it professionally. (I love to draw and am pretty good with certain aspects of it, but I'm very slow which makes it not a good career choice. I treat it as a hobby, while writing - which I'm also pretty at and can do much more quickly - is the career pursuit.)
Sometimes writing is just a job and folks move on to other things or are able to retire.
Sometimes folks just can't compete with a changing market. (I'm a baby author who struggles to sell work. It's a grind to keep going without a return on my time and effort.)
Sometimes folks have personal or health issues that they aren't comfortable sharing but prevent them from continuing.

I mean, there are a lot of possible reasons for authors to disappear (but not be dead). And I think as we get older we also tend to gain a perspective on things that may prompt folks to change priorities on where they spend their time.
 

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Her disappearance (or "disappearance," if you prefer) was enough of a phenomenon that I attended multiple con panels on the subject for a couple of years after her death. I know in my small town, being dropped by DAW meant I didn't see her work anymore, full stop.

I adore Tanith Lee, but from speaking to her husband at a con last year I get the impression she was an editor's worst nightmare. She flat refused to use a computer, for one thing, which I can't imagine went down very well with publishers even 10 or so years ago.

No one seems to talk about Brent Weeks or Mark Lawrence anymore either

Huh? Mark Lawrence is *huge* here in the UK - Red Sister is doing crazy numbers.