 julian clare may (born july 10, 1931) is an american science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's writer who also uses several literary pseudonyms, best known for her saga of pliocene exile (saga of the exiles in the uk) and galactic milieu series books. == background and early career == julian may grew up in elmwood park, illinois, a suburb of chicago, the oldest of four children. her parents were matthew m. may (originally majewski) and julia feilen may; as a child she was known as judy may. she became involved in science fiction fandom in her late teens, publishing the fanzine interim newsletter for a time. she sold her first professional fiction, a short story called "dune roller", in 1950 to john w. campbell's astounding science fiction; it appeared in 1951, under the name "j. c. may", accompanied by her original illustrations. she met her future husband, ted dikty, later that year at a convention in ohio. may chaired the tenth world science fiction convention in chicago in 1952, and married dikty in january, 1953. after selling one more short story, "star of wonder" (to thrilling wonder stories in 1953), she dropped out of the science fiction field. == period outside science fiction == may and dikty had three children, the last of whom was born in 1958. starting in 1954, may wrote thousands of science encyclopedia articles for consolidated book publishers; after finishing that project, she wrote similar articles for two other encyclopedia publishers. in 1957 she and her husband founded a production and editorial service for small publishers, publication associates; the most notable projects may wrote and edited during this period include two episodes of the buck rogers comic strip and a new catholic catechism for franciscan herald press, a publisher associated with the order of friars minor. between 1956 and 1981 she wrote more than 250 books for children and young adults, most non-fiction, under her own name and a varie
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