Tanith Lee
Tanith Lee
Tanith Leewas a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of over 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book, and many poems. She also wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award, for her book Death's Master...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 September 1947
adult books children finally night published start stop stupid taken work
In my 20s some of my work for children was published by Macmillan. However, I was 27 before my adult novel... was taken by DAW Books in the USA. This enabled me finally to stop doing stupid and soul-killing jobs, and start working day and night as a professional writer.
beginning followed learning words year
Once I could read, I think writing followed very quickly; I was able to put down my words and letters... So there's just over a year between my learning to read and beginning to write.
books fell few happens looked love obsessed though written
I've written two books set in India... In the mid-'80s, I just fell for India, and it was like a love affair. I was obsessed with it. I read a few things, and looked at films, and it was as though I was more there than in England, where I was writing! This always happens to me, and it's magical.
changes finishing hours life meant morning physical range rarely reasonable stamina time work
I used to work all hours of day and night, but changes in my life and physical stamina have meant that now I rarely work so long as I did-4 in the morning was a reasonable time to me, for finishing up. That isn't in my range any more.
found french historical utterly version
I started a version of my French historical novel... I found it utterly fascinating.
greek sort though written
I've also written a big fantasy, very much the sort of thing I used to write, set in kind of a Greek world, though with a lot of differences.
anyone interested keeping starting throw typed
I used to throw away my holograph manuscripts after I'd typed them, but I'm keeping a lot of them now, because obviously, at 50, I'm starting to think, if anyone ever is interested in me after I'm dead, they can look and see.
beautiful believe entirely graham literature produced william
I couldn't believe someone had produced literature that was like an entirely new language, beautiful stuff. Graham Greene, everything. William Golding.
both couple entirely fiction harsh ideas possibly quite science sure surprise
I've got a couple of science fiction ideas that I want to do, both quite harsh - and possibly quite funny. And not like anything I've done so far. But I'm never entirely sure what I'm going to do. It's always a surprise to me.
synopsis chains
I hardly ever work from a synopsis -- I find they act like chains.
war writing long
I simply write what I want, wish, long to write.... The state of human life and the god or demon within. The constant internal war that being alive can conjure.
real writing heart
For me, everyone I write of is real. I have little true say in what they want, what they do or end up as (or in). Their acts appall, enchant, disgust or astound me. Their ends fill me with retributive glee, or break my heart. I can only take credit (if I can even take credit for that) in reporting the scenario. This is not a disclaimer. Just a fact.
horse night sky
World's flying like birds; my car's in flight. The city lights are spattered on my windshield like the fragments of the night. And I'm in flight. The sky's a wheel, a merry-go-round of wings and snow and steel, and fire. We'll tread the sky, we'll ride the scarlet horses.
christian teaching sometimes
I am interested in most mythology. Celtic or Christian no more than anything else. I will admit to a pleasure and sense of hope in what I see as the basic teachings of Christ, stripped of the nonsense that has sometimes been accumulated about them and the embarrassing misunderstanding.