Mercedes Lackey

American fantasy novelist. Lackey is highly acclaimed for her inventive series, "Bardic Voice," as well as the Valdemar novels and the SERRated Edge series. She has written lyrics for close to 50 science fiction folk songs, which have been recorded by Off-Centaur.

She began writing as a hobby when she was eight or nine years old. After completing high school, she entered Purdue University. She graduated with a degree in biology in 1972, and during the 1970s, she worked a variety of jobs including stints as a waitress, security guard and artist’s model. She eventually got into computer programming, but ended up working for American Airlines.

Bored, after settling down in Oklahoma, she began writing seriously, but it soon became an addiction. She states that she has no social life to speak of, and although she chose fantasy as her subject, she works hard to keep the imaginary worlds solid and real. Her approach to her writing can be summed up by a creed she gave one of her characters. "There’s no such thing as ‘one, true way.’ The only answers worth having are the ones you find for yourself; leave the world better than you found it. Love, freedom and the chance to do some good; they are the things worth living and dying for, and if you aren’t willing to die for the things worth living for, you might as well turn in your membership in the human race."

Lackey is married to her collaborator, artist Larry Dixon. Both are avidly interested in the welfare of American birds.