Deborah J. Ross

## About the Author

* **Pen Name**: Deborah Wheeler
* **Genre**: Epic Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery
* **Writing Style**:
* **Books:** Deborah J. Ross Books

### Biography

Ross was born in April 1947 and grew up in California. Ross attended Portland State University, graduating in 1973. Around this time, she became friends with Marion Zimmer Bradley. When Bradley was asked to edit the first Sword and Sorceress, Ross submitted a short story for the anthology, "Imperatrix" (1984). "Imperatrix" became her first published short story, under her married name of Deborah Wheeler.

### About

Well before I learned to scrawl my name, I made up stories, and once I could form proper words and pictures to accompany them, I began putting together whole books. My father was a printer, and our home was amply supplied with paper and ink. In my teens and twenties, I began many novels, even finished a few of them, but never knew what to do with them next, nor did I know any writers beyond a few school friends who were just as clueless as I was. I knew I loved to write, and I occasionally dared to hope that someday, my writing would be more than a secret pleasure.

In my early thirties, just after my first child was born, I hit career burnout and decided to work part-time from home. A friend invited me to join a women’s writing group. Although none of us knew what we were doing, I came home from the first meeting so exhilarated that I drafted the story I’d been playing in my head for the last year. No one told me it was crazy to write a novel in 6 weeks with a new baby and a part-time career. The real break came in 1991, when I lived in Lyons, France. A couple of months after I returned to the States, I sold my first novel.

Writing under my married name, Deborah Wheeler, I sold several additional novels, as well as several dozen short stories to anthologies and magazines.

In 1999, I moved from the concrete desert of Los Angeles to the serenity of the redwood forest and returned to the name of my birth, Deborah J. Ross.

### Darkover

She took up the Darkover series after MZB's death.

Ross, in roughly the fall of 2014, wrote:

> I began working with Marion in the final year of her life, thinking we would collaborate on one or more novels. Although we had worked out a general plot arc for three books when she died, I went on to write them myself under the supervision of her Literary Trustee. Those three books, *The Fall of Neskaya*, *Zandru’s Forge*, and *A Flame in Hali*, were followed by three more. At first, I worked to maintain Bradley’s literary voice and creative vision. By the end of the sixth book (*The Children of Kings*), I realized how much of my own imagination colored the story and its landscape. I found myself drawn away from the characters and situations that Marion had envisioned, and toward those I had invented. I believe it’s a healthy thing, to simultaneously allow for the introduction of new characters, themes, and resonances, at the same time staying true to the spirit of the world, a wondrous place of telepaths and swordsmen, nonhumans and ancient mysteries, the clash of cultures between a star-faring, technologically advanced civilization and one that has pursued psychic gifts and has turned away from weapons of mass destruction. It’s an engraved invitation to gritty, romantic, action-adventure, gender-bending, inclusive, poignant, uplifting stories!...
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> Series
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> ### Darkover series
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> * Genre: Fantasy, epic fantasy, Sci Fi colonization
> * Theme: Humans are forced to land on an unknown planet and loose touch with Earth, many generations/centuries later they are once again in touch but humans on Darkover have changed.
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> ### The Seven-Petaled Shield
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> * Genre: Fantasy, epic fantasy, Sci Fi colonization
> * Theme: An original fantasy series, intended to be a trilogy
> * Series list:
> 	1. The Seven-Petaled Shield (The Seven-Petaled Shield Book 1) (2013)
> 	2. Shannivar (The Seven-Petaled Shield Book 2) (2013)
> 	3. The Heir of Khored (The Seven-Petaled Shield Book 3) (2014)
> 	+ Azkhantian Tales (The Seven-Petaled Shield) (2013)
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> Other Works
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> ### Novels as Deborah Wheeler
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> * *Jaydium* (1993) (*out of print*)
> * *Northlight* (1995) (*out of print*)
> * *Collaborators* (2013)
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> ### Anthologies
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> * *Lace and Blade* (2008), Norilana Books.
> * *Lace and Blade 2* (2009), Norilana Books.
> * *Lace and Blade 4* (2018)
> * *Lace and Blade 5* (2019)
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> References
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> 1. ↑ Author's Website| About
> 2. ↑ Deborah J Ross | Fanlore.org
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