Lisa Smedman - Writing

Writing

Smedman is one of the most prolific authors of science fiction and fantasy gaming tie-in novels in Canada. She began writing her own stapled-together stories in elementary school. In 1981, she discovered Dungeons & Dragons and soon became a Dungeon Master.

By 1987, Smedman had become convention spokesperson for the 15th year of V-Con, the annual convention of the B.C. Science Fiction Association, that attracted about six hundred people.

In the late 1980s, Smedman began to write for Dragon magazine, which led to her writing her first gaming adventure for TSR, Inc.—the creators of Dungeons & Dragons—in 1993. After Dragon's Crown was released, Smedman wrote ten more adventures for TSR in the next three years.

Smedman's first novel, The Lucifer Deck, was set in the Roc Books Shadowrun universe and published in 1997. She used her own childhood experiences with homosexuality to fashion a child protagonist who, after changing into a magical creature and being rejected by her family, finds herself homeless on the streets. Although Smedman says that her family is supportive and loving, "I have known people who came out as gay in their teens and were utterly rejected by their families. Because I'm also gay, it's easy for me to imagine what they must have felt."

Eight more books followed The Lucifer Deck. Extinction, set in Wizards Of The Coast's Forgotten Realms universe, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2004.

In 2004, Smedman's tenth novel appeared; it was her first entirely independent work. The Apparition Trail is an alternate-history fantasy which posits an 1884 Western Canada where the power imbalance between the First Nations and European settlers exists in a universe with magic and alternate physics.