1999 - 07/1999 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/25/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 05/18/08.

ROSEMARY EDGHILL ( ELUKI BES SHAHAR)

Genre Books:

As Eluke bes Shahar

Archangel Blues

Darktraders

Hellflower

X-MEN: Smoke and Mirrors

X-MEN, Time's Arrow 3: The Future

As Rosemary Edghill

The Cloak of Night and Daggers

The Cup of Morning Shadows

The Sword of Maiden's Tears

Vengeance of Masks

The Warslayer

Ghostlight (with Marian Zimmer Bradley)

Gravelight (with Marian Zimmer Bradley)

Heartlight (with Marian Zimmer Bradley)

Witchlight (with Marian Zimmer Bradley)

Beyond World's End (with Mercedes Lackey)

Mad Maudlin (with Mercedes Lackey)

Music to my Sorrow (with Mercedes Lackey)

Spirits White as Lightning (with Mercedes Lackey)

Leopard in Exile (with Andre Norton)

Shadow of Albion (with Andre Norton)

The author's website is: http://www.sff.net/people/eluki/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: July 10, 1999.

Meeting Site: Barnes & Noble, West Paterson, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 40.

Meeting Program: Talk by Science Fiction Writer.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1999 Philip J De Parto:

The July 10, 1999 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at Barnes & Noble in West Paterson, New Jersey. Club member Gary Blog led a lively discussion of the summertime releases of science fiction and associated movies at the Final Frontier pre meeting gathering.

The Official Speaker at the meeting was writer Eluki bes Shahar, who usually writes under the name Rosemary Edghill. She enjoys and has written science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and comic book novels.

Her early work, two THE X-MEN novels and the Hellflower science fiction trilogy were written under the name Eluki bes Shahar. She didn't speak much about the Hellflower books, but had a wonderful story about THE X-MEN comic book novels. Keith De Candido called her up and asked her if she'd like a crack at the series. Another writer originally had the assignment but "He broke a leg, so we had to shoot him."

When her first alternate history/Regency Romance was accepted for publication, she decided she wanted a pseudonym for two reasons: she did not want to mislead her science fiction fans about the content of the book, and her editor told her that the best Regency Romances were written by dead English women. She chose "Rosemary" because three good-selling Romance writers had that name and "Edghill" because it was a name within her family and sounded English and dead.

She is currently working on The Twelve Treasures fantasy series. THE SWORD OF MAIDENS' TEARS had originally been intended as a stand alone novel, so she had a lot of scrambling and note taking in order to plot THE CUP OF MORNING SHADOWS. Some of the zanier treasures the author came up with, like a magic footstool, were vetoed by her editor.

Eluki is a full time author who writes 10 - 12 hours a day ("having no life helps") and completes a novel in just six weeks. She has acquired a number of tools to help her maintain this pace.

The first is to write under a tight deadline. This forces her to finish a book on the third draft instead of rewriting it forever. The next is to maintain an office/research library outside her residence. This removes her from working around the house and other distractions. Another is working from an outline. This prevents her from repeating the mistake of being 100 pages into a mystery without having introduced the murderer. The final, and perhaps most important one, is writing on a computer. When Eluki used a typewriter, she had to write the novel in sequence. This slowed her down because some scenes were fully developed in her head while others were there only in the sketchiest of outlines. She can now write the finished scenes as she waits for the other pieces to fall into place.

Aspiring writers are invited to visit the author's website at: http://www.sff/net/people/eluki where they can find examples of successful book proposals, working outlines, and other useful tools of the trade.

There were a number of random digressions during the talk, but perhaps the most interesting one was Eluki's revelation that the original name for the state of Kentucky was to have been Transylvania.