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Mercedes Lackey Mercedes Lackey is a prolific American author of 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. Her Valdemar novels form a complex tapestry of interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social mores. There is a prominent theme of tolerance throughout, notably in the relative prominence of homosexual characters and the ethos of Valdemar: "There is no way".

The other main world in which she writes is one much like our own, but also populated by elves, mages, vampires, and other mythical beings. Some of the interlocking series in this world are the Diana Tregarde thrillers, the "SERRAted Edge" books about racecar-driving elves, and the "Bedlam's Bard" books, characterizing a young man with the power to work incredible magics through music. While the SERRAted Edge and Bedlam's Bard series are still in progress, she has declined to write further Diana Tregarde stories because of low sales. Lackey received harassment from a small but determined number of fans over the decision. She claims that the trouble escalated to the point where she and her husband received death threats and were temporarily forced to suspend their fandom activities. She resumed attending conventions by 2004.

There is a Mercedes Lackey fan group on Usenet. She keeps a tight hold on her copyrights, and no published fanfiction is allowed outside of her authorized fanclub. The fanclub, the Queen's Own, is named after Herald Talia's position in her books.

Her earlier 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.

She and her husband Larry Dixon have in the past worked in raptor rehabilitation. She often refers to her various parrots as her "feathered children". The afterwords to some of her books refer to rehabilitation and falconry, and it is clear that this interest has influenced and informed her writing.

Lackey has been active in the filking community. She was a major contributor to the first album of space filk,

Mercedes Lackey is a protegee of Marion Zimmer Bradley, and got her start writing short stories in Bradley's story collections.

In her use of female and homosexual protagonists, she is like Tanya Huff, although she lacks Huff's rather light tone.

Some disparage her books as being about 'talking horses', though her works depict a wide range of cultures and environments.Because of the prominence of female and homosexual characters in her high fantasy works, she has been criticized for writing "fluffy" fantasy novels which bear little or no resemblance to real or pseudo-real history.Her failure to engage in adequate research before writing about real-world cultures has also been criticised, especially by members of and sympathisers with those cultures.

Some of the trilogies follow on chronologically from each other. Others are set a considerable number of years apart from the others. Overall the books span some 3000 years of history. There is a significant gap in the middle which might some day be filled.

However Lackey has recently (October 2003) announced that she is taking a break from writing Velgarth books.

This set consists of the original trilogy, the very first Valdemar books published, and a prequel trilogy, the most recent.

(in the third book), telling the stories of their not-entirely-voluntary enrolments as Heralds.

ol completing her transformation from "the Brat" to a fully-fledged Herald. Secondary protaganists include Skif and a new character Darkwind.

ol; by the time of the "later" books he has become legend, thus explaining some of the small inconsistencies.

ol, These characters appeared first in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series) and were revisited in subsequent short stories. Two of these short stories are woven into the books as part of a longer narrative. The third volume is made up entirely of short stories in place of a longer narrative; with its publication, all the Tarma and Kethry stories were available together. The original ) as a trilogy.

In the books, Tarma is a sword-wielding Shin'a'in tribeswoman. Kethry is a magic-user who carries a sword with unusual properties. The nature of this sword, Need, is explored in later series set in Valdemar. At the time of the books, all that is known is that it is magic, protects female bearers, and can pressure its owner into assisting other women. The overarching goal for the two women is to accumulate resources enough to regenerate Tarma's almost-destroyed tribe. As the titles of the books suggest, emphasis is laid on the importance and consequences of oaths in at least one story from each book. The setting of the books is generally in the lands south of Valdemar such as Rethwellan, although there is a brief sojourn in Valdemar in books to the Companions of Valdemar which laid early hints to their nature. The introduction of a four-fold deity (Tarma's Goddess) was something of a novel idea at the time of publication.

These are set in pre-history, some 2000-3000 years earlier. They describe the events which set off books: that is, a real world with levinbolts and elves who drive racing cars. At least one character (TannimMercedes Lackey is seen in both sets of books. The main character, , is an American Wiccan witch who has access to more magical power than many by virtue of her position as a Guardian, but who is required to give her help when someone asks it of her. Her magical abilities do not pay the bills, however, and Diana is a genre (romance) novelist in her day job. In the stories, she must protect others from angry deities (). The books were published under Tor's horror imprint rather than as fantasy. At the time of publication, positive depictions of what Wiccans and, more generally, neopagans believed and did were rare. In the mid-nineties, Lackey's books generally and these three particularly were regularly cited as examples of pagan-friendly fiction. ([1] (1992), [2] (1995)) Lackey has written that she has no plans for further books in the series because they did not sell well (and not, as some fans apparently believed, because she had come under pressure for stumbling "too close to the truth" of some supernatural conspiracy); nonetheless, she incorporated several elements of the Guardian mythos, including the apartment building where Diana lived, into later books in her series.

The character Diana Tregarde first appeared in two short stories, "Satanic, Versus..." and "Nightside", which were originally written for inclusion in the (1999). "Satanic, Versus..." is a humorous cautionary tale that demonstrates just what can happen when people who don't quite understand magic meddle with it, whereas "Nightside" is a preliminary version of what later became the novel concerned a secret government agency tasked with investigating the supernatural. Presumably any original connection to the game's continuity has been rendered apocryphal by the expansion to novel form. Nonetheless, perhaps it is not entirely coincidental that a similar agency appears as an antagonist in a later . The books were paired off by thematic content rather than order; thus readers wishing to read the series in chronological order would be advised to read the first half of .

Mark Shepherd's solo books in this series are only thinly connected to the other books, and might more properly be considered a separate series of their own.

are a prequel series set several hundred years prior to the other books in the series. The first printing of s first Baen hardcover edition included a bound-in CDROM containing ebook editions of that as well as many other works by Lackey and other authors. As with Baen's other bound-in CDs, this CD included blanket permission to copy and share its contents noncommercially; thus it may be found freely circulating in peer-to-peer networks, as well as hosted on the world-wide web.

Set in an alternate universe where magic is real, and Elemental Masters control the powers of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth—in parts of the world at least. These stories are based loosely—sometimes

The Free Bards had their genesis in the story "Fiddler Fair", originally written for an Andre Norton shared-world anthology entitled . The Ithkar series did not continue after its second volume, so Lackey rewrote, changed, and expanded the story into a setting of its own in

The books primarily follow the story of Vetch (or Kiron, from the second book onward), and centers initially around a war between the neighboring countries of Alta and Tia, both of which use Dragon Jousters as their most powerful weapons.

ol

This series primarily follows the adventures of Kellen Tavadon, and centers around the war between the races of light, and the Endarkened.

olThe Queen's Own Newsletters archive, provided by The Official Mercedes Lackey Fan Club in Laguna Beach, CA (with archives online dating back to 1988)