In general, writing is pushing an edge for me – a new technology, a new type of character, an attempt at a new voice.  But sometimes it’s more like a hot cocoa by the fire.  I spent years grabbing the newest Mercedes Lackey books from the shelf as soon as they came out.  When I got older, I often handed the Valdemar books to teens who needed a good place to read about.

Valdemar is a fantasy kingdom with real (and usually clear) good and evil, a fairly safe place from which Mercedes Lackey often write about unsafe issues.  For example, when the Last Herald Mage series came out starting in 1990, people weren’t generally writing bestselling books with gay main characters.

So I am very lucky now that I’m a grown-up writer to be able to tell stories inside this world.  The latest one I got to tell is in the new DAW collection, Changing the World, All-New Tales of Valdemar.  I am always grateful when I get invited to play in a place I spent so many hours reading and re-reading novel-size stories about.