Margaret Weis

Margaret Weis
Margaret Weis (right) and Tracy Hickman at Gen Con Indy 2008
Born	March 16, 1948 (1948-03-16) (age 61) Independence, Missouri
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	United States of America
Writing period	1984-Present
Genres	Fantasy Fiction/Sci-Fi
Official website

Margaret Edith Weis (born March 16, 1948 in Independence, Missouri, United States) is a fantasy novelist who, along with Tracy Hickman, is one of the original creators of the Dragonlance game world and has written numerous novels and short stories set in fantastic worlds.

Early life

Margaret Weis was born in 1948 in Independence, Missouri, and later attended the University of Missouri.^[1] She discovered heroic fantasy fiction while in college, “I read Tolkien when it made its first big sweep in the colleges back in 1966. A girlfriend of mine gave me copy of the books while I was in summer school at MU. I literally couldn’t put them down! I never found any other fantasy I liked, and just never read any fantasy after Tolkien.”^[1] She graduated with a bachelor's degree of Arts,^{[citation needed]} and went to work for a small publishing company in Independence and became an editor there.^[1]

Soon she discovered what would become her real career: “I did see the beginnings of the D&D game — all of the little books — but was pretty much occupied by marriage, kids, and a career, and just didn’t pursue it.” Eventually, she saw an advertisement for an editorial position at TSR in Publishers Weekly and sent in her resume.^[1]

Career

TSR turned Weis down for the position of games editor, but they hired her as a book editor. One of her first assignments was to help coordinate the new Dragonlance project. “We can write this book,” Margaret told her new partner, Tracy Hickman, in January 1983. “It’s our story. Nobody knows it the way we do. Nobody else can tell it right.”^[1] Hickman and Weis as a writing team produced several projects based on the popular Dragonlance saga, which included novels, short stories, art books, calendars in the product line.^[1]

Most recently, she has completed the third novel in the Dragonvarld trilogy for TOR, Master of Dragons. Her third novel in the Dark Disciple series, Amber and Blood, was released to stores on May 6, 2008. She has finished work on the first novel in the Lost Chronicles series with co-author Hickman, entitled Dragons of the Dwarven Depths, which was released in July 2006.

Margaret Weis at the Lucca convention in October 2005.

In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Margaret Weis as one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons "at least in the realm of adventure gaming."^[2] The magazine stated that Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis are "basically responsible for the entire gaming fiction genre."^[2] Weis was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in 2002, recognized in part for "one game line turned literary sensation: Dragonlance."^[3]

In addition to her writing career, Margaret serves as the owner and chief officer of two publishing companies, including Sovereign Press, Inc., a game publisher based in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The company used to own the license to Larry Elmore's Sovereign Stone RPG world, hence the name of the company. It now produces the Dragonlance line of game products, licensed from Wizards of the Coast. Her newest company, Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd, publishes RPG line based on several licenses including Serenity and Battlestar Galactica as well as Ed Greenwood's new solo venture into roleplaying, Castlemourn.

Personal life

Despite her fame as a fantasy author, she claims not to read fantasy books.^[4]

On a personal level, Weis is a mother of two (David (deceased) and Elizabeth (Lizz) Baldwin) from her first marriage. She has also divorced her second husband, Canadian-born author Don Perrin.

Weis is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed in 1993 and underwent successful chemotherapy. She kept herself busy writing The Seventh Gate during her treatment.^[5] Weis now lives in southern Wisconsin in a converted barn.

Bibliography

Dragonlance

• Chronicles:
  1. Dragons of Autumn Twilight¹ (1984)
  2. Dragons of Winter Night¹ (1985)
  3. Dragons of Spring Dawning¹ (1985)

• Legends:
  1. Time of the Twins¹ (1986)
  2. War of the Twins¹ (1986)
  3. Test of the Twins¹ (1986)

• The Second Generation¹ (1994)

• Dragons of Summer Flame¹ (1996)

• Kang's Regiment:
  1. The Doom Brigade² (1996)
  2. Draconian Measures² (2000)

• The Raistlin Chronicles:
  1. The Soulforge (1998)
  2. Brothers in Arms² (1999)

• The War of Souls:
  1. Dragons of a Fallen Sun¹ (2000) (Winner of the 2000 Origins Award for Best Game-Related Novel ^[6])
  2. Dragons of a Lost Star¹ (2001)
  3. Dragons of a Vanished Moon¹ (2002)

• The Dark Disciple:
  1. Amber and Ashes (2004)
  2. Amber and Iron (2006)
  3. Amber and Blood (2008)

• The Lost Chronicles:
  1. Dragons of the Dwarven Depths¹ (2006)
  2. Dragons of the Highlord Skies¹ (2007)
  3. Dragons of the Hourglass Mage¹ (Summer 2009)^[7]

¹ (co-author Tracy Hickman)
² (co-author Don Perrin)

Endless Quest

1. The Endless Catacombs (1984)

Darksword

(co-author Tracy Hickman)

1. Forging the Darksword (1987)
2. Doom of the Darksword (1988)
3. Triumph of the Darksword (1988)
4. Legacy of the Darksword (1997)
5. Darksword Adventures (1988)

Rose of the Prophet

(co-author Tracy Hickman)

1. The Will of the Wanderer (1988)
2. Paladin of the Night (1989)
3. The Prophet of Akhran (1989)

Star of the Guardians

1. The Lost King (1990)
2. King's Test (1991)
3. King's Sacrifice (1991)
4. Ghost Legion (1993)

The Death Gate Cycle

(co-author Tracy Hickman)

1. Dragon Wing (1990)
2. Elven Star (1991)
3. Fire Sea (1992)
4. Serpent Mage (1993)
5. The Hand of Chaos (1993)
6. Into the Labyrinth (1994)
7. The Seventh Gate (1995)

Mag Force 7

(co-author Don Perrin)

1. The Knights of the Black Earth (1995)
2. Robot Blues (1996)
3. Hung Out (1997)

Starshield

(co-author Tracy Hickman)

1. Starshield: Sentinels (1996)
2. Nightsword (1998)

Dragon's Disciple

(co-author David Baldwin, her son)

1. Dark Heart (1998)

Sovereign Stone

(co-author Tracy Hickman)

1. Well of Darkness (2000)
2. Guardians of the Lost (2001)
3. Journey into the Void (2003)

Dragonvarld

1. Mistress of Dragons (2003)
2. The Dragon's Son (2004)
3. Master of Dragons (2005)

Angel Series

(co-authoress, Lizz Weis her daughter)

1. Warrior Angel (2007)
2. Fallen Angel (2008)

Dragonships of Vindras

(co-author Tracy Hickman)

1. Bones of the Dragon (2008)
2. Secret of the Dragon (March 16, 2010)

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (August 2009)

• In the Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984), Margaret includes allusions to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, one of her favorite stories. References include But there was something disquieting about him—secret, silent, self-contained, and solitary as an oyster^[8] and The fate of mankind is my business, turning the quote from meaning good to meaning harm.^[9]

• To describe a scene in Dragons of Winter Night (1985) where dragons attacked the city of Tarsis, Margaret Weis studied World War II films of the bombing of London.^[10]

• When Jeff Grubb first met her, she had an autographed picture of Darth Vader on her desk.^[11]

• In Dragons of Winter Night (1985), Margaret references Othello by William Shakespeare, with the phrase "No, you're wrong, Tanis. I sent him away."^[12]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Margaret Weis

• Margaret Weis's homepage
• Margaret Weis at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Official Margaret Weis podcast
• Interview with the Scifi channel