'It's somewhere else to go'

 

“I just love writing. It's magical, it's somewhere else to go, it's somewhere much more dreadful, somewhere much more exciting. Somewhere I feel I belong, possibly more than in the so-called real world.” –  Tanith Lee

Born in London on this date in 1947 Lee authored some 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book (Animal Castle), and many poems in a 40-year career (she died in 2015).   She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel for Death's Master and recipient of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achevement Award shortly before her death.

Despite her success with adult fiction, a large part of her prolific output was in children's fantasy, starting with her first book The Dragon Hoard in 1971, to her highly successful Claidi Journals that included the bestselling books Wolf Tower, Wolf Star, Wolf Queen and Wolf Wing in the  2000s.

Much of her work, she said, came from "small things" rather than major inspirations, and as to her preference for what she liked to write, she replied, “Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and non-fiction."

                               

She encouraged everyone to write, saying, “Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but EVERYONE has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.  But I believe it's true.”