Career
Offutt began publishing in 1954 with the story "And Gone Tomorrow" in If. Despite this early sale, he doesn't consider his professional life to have begun until he sold the story "Blacksword" to Galaxy in 1959. His first true SF novel was Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards in 1970. Offutt disliked the title of this book, calling it "embarrassingly amateur".
Offutt has written and published numerous novels and short stories, including several in the "Thieves World" series edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey, which feature his best known character, the thief, Hanse, also known as Shadowspawn (and, later, Chance). His "Iron Lords" series, likewise, was popular. Offutt also wrote two series of books based on characters by Robert E. Howard, one on Howard's best known character, Conan, and one on a lesser known character, Cormac mac Art. He also wrote the 19-book science fiction "Spaceways" series, over half of which were collaborations.
As an editor Offutt produced a series of five anthologies entitled Swords Against Darkness, which included the first professional sale by Charles de Lint. From 1976 to 1978 he served as president of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA).
Offutt also wrote a large number of pornographic/erotic works under twelve different pseudonyms, not all of them identified. Known pseudonyms include John Cleve, J.(John) X. Williams, Jeff Douglas, Turk Winter, Farrah Fawkes, & Baxter Giles. His main works in this area include the historical "Crusader" series.
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