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Mercedes Lackey

Goodreads Author

Born

in Chicago, Illinois, The United States

Website

http://www.mercedeslackey.com

Twitter

MercedesLackey

Genre

Fantasy, Science Fiction, Music

Member Since

August 2024

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Mercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.

"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics Mercedes entered this world on June 24, 1950, in Chicago, had a normal childhood and graduated from Purdue University in 1972. During the late 70's she worked as an artist's model and then went into the computer programming field, ending up with American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to her fantasy writing, she has written lyrics for and recorded nearly fifty songs for Firebird Arts & Music, a small recording company specializing in science fiction folk music.

"I'm a storyteller; that's what I see as 'my job'. My stories come out of my characters; how those characters would react to the given situation. Maybe that's why I get letters from readers as young as thirteen and as old as sixty-odd. One of the reasons I write song lyrics is because I see songs as a kind of 'story pill' -- they reduce a story to the barest essentials or encapsulate a particular crucial moment in time. I frequently will write a lyric when I am attempting to get to the heart of a crucial scene; I find that when I have done so, the scene has become absolutely clear in my mind, and I can write exactly what I wanted to say. Another reason is because of the kind of novels I am writing: that is, fantasy, set in an other-world semi-medieval atmosphere. Music is very important to medieval peoples; bards are the chief newsbringers. When I write the 'folk music' of these peoples, I am enriching my whole world, whether I actually use the song in the text or not.

"I began writing out of boredom; I continue out of addiction. I can't 'not' write, and as a result I have no social life! I began writing fantasy because I love it, but I try to construct my fantasy worlds with all the care of a 'high-tech' science fiction writer. I apply the principle of TANSTAAFL ['There ain't no such thing as free lunch', credited to Robert Heinlein) to magic, for instance; in my worlds, magic is paid for, and the cost to the magician is frequently a high one. I try to keep my world as solid and real as possible; people deal with stubborn pumps, bugs in the porridge, and love-lives that refuse to become untangled, right along with invading armies and evil magicians. And I try to make all of my characters, even the 'evil magicians,' something more than flat stereotypes. Even evil magicians get up in the night and look for cookies, sometimes.

"I suppose that in everything I write I try to expound the creed I gave my character Diana Tregarde in Burning Water:

"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're 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."

Also writes as Misty Lackey

Author's website ...more

50 posts
Mercedes Lackey's Blog

New Deluxe Valdemar Collection

I've been very fond of the idea of deluxe books for a long time, ever since I lusted over and finally bought the Red Book of Westmarch version of Lord of the Rings. And I wanted something like that for my own books.

Grandmaster Campaign Header Image

Grandmaster is all of the short stories from the Valdemar anthologies and the Companion, in one place, that I've written or Larry has written or Larry and I have written together.

Si Read more of this blog post »

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Published on September 11, 2024 14:54 • Tags: valdemar

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Mercedes Lackey’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 1,083,005 ratings · 39,833 reviews · 440 distinct works • Similar authors

	Arrows of the Queen (Heralds of Valdemar, #1) 4.13 avg rating — 39,993 ratings — published 1987 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Magic's Pawn (The Last Herald-Mage, #1) 4.20 avg rating — 28,591 ratings — published 1989 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Arrow's Fall (Heralds of Valdemar, #3) 4.19 avg rating — 24,462 ratings — published 1988 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Arrow's Flight (Heralds of Valdemar, #2) 4.13 avg rating — 24,517 ratings — published 1987 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Magic's Price (The Last Herald-Mage #3) 4.26 avg rating — 22,825 ratings — published 1990 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Magic's Promise (The Last Herald-Mage #2) 4.22 avg rating — 22,383 ratings — published 1990 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	By the Sword (Valdemar, #9) 4.28 avg rating — 21,611 ratings — published 1991 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fairy Godmother (Five Hundred Kingdoms, #1) 3.99 avg rating — 19,511 ratings — published 2004 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Winds of Fate (Mage Winds, #1) 4.08 avg rating — 17,710 ratings — published 1991 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Oathbreakers (Vows and Honor, #2) 4.20 avg rating — 16,275 ratings — published 1989 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Mercedes Lackey…

Series by Mercedes Lackey

Elemental Masters (18 books)
by

Mercedes Lackey (Goodreads Author)

3.96 avg rating — 93,261 ratings

Valdemar: Vows and Honor (3 books)
by

Mercedes Lackey (Goodreads Author)

4.16 avg rating — 49,342 ratings

Valdemar: Collegium Chronicles (5 books)
by

Mercedes Lackey (Goodreads Author)

4.05 avg rating — 44,841 ratings

Obsidian Universe (8 books)
by

Mercedes Lackey (Goodreads Author),

James Mallory

4.05 avg rating — 44,738 ratings

Valdemar: Mage Wars (3 books)
by

Mercedes Lackey (Goodreads Author),

Larry Dixon

3.99 avg rating — 40,105 ratings

More series by Mercedes Lackey…

It's fair to say that Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing—a romance-laced fantasy about dragon-riding warriors—has become the hit book of the summer....

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Mercedes’s Recent Updates

Mercedes Lackey wrote a new blog post How do I publish and sell my finished revised fiction novel (250 pages)? First of all, unless your 250 pages are single, rather than double-spaced, this is not a novel. At best, it is a novella. But number of pages is essen Read more of this blog post »
Jan 23, 2026 10:22AM · like

More of Mercedes's books…

Quotes by Mercedes Lackey (?)

“If I'm walking on thin ice, I might as well dance my way across.”
― Mercedes Lackey

tags: humor

905 likes

“If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.”
― Mercedes Lackey

tags: past, regret

631 likes

“If it is stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
(a Shin'a'in saying)”
― Mercedes Lackey, Owlknight

tags: stupid, stupidity, trying

369 likes

See all Mercedes Lackey's quotes »

Polls

Poll for our two fictional retellings in novel form choices. Poll will close on Friday, September 18.

Beauty

Robin McKinley

3 votes, 33.3%

The Fairest of Them All

Carolyn Turgeon

3 votes, 33.3%

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Gregory Maguire

2 votes, 22.2%

Enchantment

Orson Scott Card

1 vote, 11.1%

Ice

Sarah Beth Durst

0 votes, 0.0%

White As Snow

Tanith Lee

0 votes, 0.0%

The Fairy Godmother

Mercedes Lackey

0 votes, 0.0%

Spindle's End

Robin McKinley

0 votes, 0.0%

9 total votes

1 comment

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