| Lisa Smedman | |
|---|---|
| Born | c 1959 North Vancouver, BC |
| Occupation | novelist |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 1997 - |
| Genres | Science fiction and fantasy |
Lisa Smedman (North Vancouver, British Columbia: born c. 1959) is a newspaper editor and a science fiction and fantasy novelist. Her most well-known work is Extinction, a novel set in the Forgotten Realms universe.
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Smedman was born c.1959 and raised in North Vancouver, BC, Canada; a suburb of Vancouver.[1] She earned a BA in anthropology from the University of British Columbia and a journalism diploma from Langara College in Vancouver.[1] After her first job as a typesetter for a local publisher, Smedman has spent her entire career working as a reporter and editor at Vancouver-area weekly newspapers.[1] She has worked at the Richmond Review, the Langley Times, and Sounder magazine.[1] Currently, she is an editor at the Vancouver Courier, where she writes local history articles.[2]
Smedman lives in Ladner, British Columbia, a Vancouver suburb. She has bookshelves filled with novels and books on science, history, forensics, religion, and mythology, as well as a vast collection of gaming boxes.[1] Smedman has a young son whom she raises with her partner; the two women married in July 2004.[1]
Smedman is one of the most prolific authors of science fiction and fantasy gaming tie-in novels in Canada.[3] She began writing her own stapled-together stories in elementary school.[1] In 1981, she discovered Dungeons & Dragons and soon became a Dungeon Master.[1]
By 1987, Smedman had become convention spokesperson for the 15th year of V-Con, the annual convention of the B.C. Science Fiction Association, that attracted about six hundred people.[4]
In the late 1980s, Smedman began to write for Dragon magazine, which led to her writing her first gaming adventure for TSR, Inc.—the creators of Dungeons & Dragons—in 1993.[1] After Dragon's Crown was released, Smedman wrote ten more adventures for TSR in the next three years.[1]
Smedman's first novel, The Lucifer Deck, was set in the Roc Books Shadowrun universe and published in 1997. She used her own childhood experiences with homosexuality to fashion a child protagonist who, after changing into a magical creature and being rejected by her family, finds herself homeless on the streets.[1] Although Smedman says that her family is supportive and loving, "I have known people who came out as gay in their teens and were utterly rejected by their families. Because I'm also gay, it's easy for me to imagine what they must have felt."[1]
Eight more books followed The Lucifer Deck. Extinction, set in Wizards Of The Coast's Forgotten Realms universe, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2004.[1][3]
In 2004, Smedman's tenth novel appeared; it was her first entirely independent work.[1] The Apparition Trail is an alternate-history fantasy which posits an 1884 Western Canada where the power imbalance between the First Nations and European settlers exists in a universe with magic and alternate physics.[1][3][5]
http://www.comixology.com/isbn/978078695364651495