Jim Macdonald does wireless on the go, Boskone 43

James Douglas Ignatius Macdonald (born 1954) is an American author and critic who lives in New Hampshire. He frequently collaborated with his late wife Dr. Debra Doyle. He works in several genres, concentrating on

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

, but also writing

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

, and

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

and media

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prop ...

Biography

Macdonald was born in 1954, and raised in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

. He attended the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

, and went on to serve in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

for fifteen years. He has been writing professionally since the early 1990s and has published 35 novels.

Educational work

Macdonald is well known for his work in educating aspiring authors, particularly for his advice on avoiding literary scams. Early in his career he was asked by such an author how much he had paid to have his books published, and in response began a campaign of educating other writers about the problems of vanity publishers. As part of this campaign, he coined ''Yog's Law'', which states "Money should flow toward the author." This rule is named after "Yog Sysop", a nickname of Macdonald that refers to

Yog-Sothoth American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) created a number of fictional deities throughout the course of his literary career. These entities are usually depicted as immensely powerful and utterly indifferent to humans who can barely begin to c ...

. It is often quoted by professional authors such as

John Scalzi John Michael Scalzi II (born May 10, 1969) is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his ''Old Man's War'' series, three novels of which have been nom ...

and

Teresa Nielsen Hayden Teresa Nielsen Hayden (born March 21, 1956) is an American science fiction editor, fanzine writer, essayist, and workshop instructor. She is a consulting editor for Tor Books and is well known for her weblog, ''Making Light''. She has also work ...

when giving advice on finding an agent and getting published.

Atlanta Nights and PublishAmerica

One target of his campaign is

PublishAmerica America Star Books, formerly PublishAmerica, is a Maryland-based print-on-demand book publisher founded in 1999 by Lawrence Alvin "Larry" Clopper III and Willem Meiners. Some writers and authors' advocates have accused the company of being a vanity ...

, a company that claims not to be a vanity publisher but a "traditional publisher" that accepts or rejects books based on their quality. Macdonald organized a group of professional authors to test whether that company was actually reading any submissions for clarity and realism before accepting them. One day after Macdonald issued a press release announcing that PublishAmerica had accepted a manuscript that was created to be as bad as possible, the company withdrew the offer to publish it.

Awards and honors

''Knight's Wyrd'' was awarded the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature, 1992, and named to the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age list in 1993. In 1997, he was awarded Best Young-Adult Science Fiction by the ''

Science Fiction Chronicle DNA Publications was an American publishing company that existed from 1993 to 2007 and was run by the husband-and-wife team of Warren Lapine and Angela Kessler. Initially based in Massachusetts, DNA Publications relocated to Radford, Virginia. A ...

'' for '' Groogleman''.

Select bibliography

This bibliography is based on Macdonald's entry on the

Internet Speculative Fiction Database The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB ...

Novels

* ''The Apocalypse Door'', Tor (New York, NY), 2002.

Novels with Debra Doyle

* (Under pseudonym Robyn Tallis) ''Night of Ghosts and Lightning'' ("Planet Builders" series), Ivy, 1989. * (Under pseudonym Robyn Tallis) ''Zero-Sum Games'' ("Planet Builders" series), Ivy, 1989. * (Under pseudonym Nicholas Adams) ''Pep Rally'' ("Horror High" series), HarperCollins, 1991 * (Under pseudonym Victor Appleton) ''Monster Machine'' ("Tom Swift" series), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1991. * (Under pseudonym Victor Appleton) ''Aquatech Warriors'' ("Tom Swift" series), Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1991. * ''Timecrime, Inc.'' ("Robert Silverberg's 'Time Tours'" series), Harper (New York, NY), 1991. * ''Night of the Living Rat'' ("Daniel Pinkwater's 'Melvinge of the Megaverse'" series), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1992. * ''Knight's Wyrd,'' Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1992. * ''Groogleman,'' Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1996. * ''Requiem for Boone'' (based on the television series Gene Roddenberry's Earth—Final Conflict), Tor (New York, NY), 2000. * (As Douglas Morgan) ''Tiger Cruise'', Forge (New York, NY), 2000. * (As Douglas Morgan) ''What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor?'' (nonfiction), Swordsmith, 2002. * ''Land of Mist and Snow'', Eos, 2006. * ''Lincoln's Sword'', HarperCollins, 2010

''Circle of Magic'' series, with Debra Doyle

* ''School of Wizardry,'' Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. * ''Tournament and Tower/The Secret of the Tower,'' Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. * ''City by the Sea/The Wizard's Statue,'' Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. * ''The Prince's Players/Danger in the Palace,'' Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. * ''The Prisoners of Bell Castle/The Wizard's Castle,'' Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. * ''The High King's Daughter'', Troll (Metuchen, NJ), 1990. * ''Mystery at the Wizardry School'', Troll (Metuchen NJ), 2003. * ''Voice of the Ice'', Cloverdale Press, 2003.

''Mageworlds'' series

Written with Debra Doyle, ''Mageworlds'' is a space opera novel series originally published in the 1990s and re-issued as e-books in 2012. # ''The Price of the Stars'',

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese sci ...

(New York), 1992. # ''Starpilot's Grave'', Tor, 1993. # ''By Honor Betray'd'', Tor, 1994. # ''The Gathering Flame'', Tor, 1995. # ''The Long Hunt'', Tor, 1996. # ''The Stars Asunder'', Tor, 1999. # ''A Working of Stars'', Tor, 2002.

''Bad Blood'' series, with Debra Doyle

* ''Bad Blood'', Berkley (New York, NY), 1993. * ''Hunters' Moon'', Berkley (New York, NY), 1994. * ''Judgment Night'', Berkley (New York, NY), 1995.

Under joint pseudonym "Martin Delrio", with Debra Doyle

* ''Mortal Kombat'' (movie novelization), Tor (New York, NY), 1995. * ''Midnight Justice'' (''Spider-Man Super-Thriller'' series), Byron Preiss (New York, NY), 1996. * ''Global War'' (''Spider-Man Super-Thriller'' series), Byron Preiss (New York, NY), 1996. * Harold R. Foster's ''Prince Valiant'' (movie novelization), Avon (New York, NY), 1998. * ''The Loch Ness Monster'' (nonfiction), Rosen Publishing (New York, NY), 2002. * ''A Silence in the Heavens'' (novel; ''MechWarrior: Dark Age'' series), Roc (New York, NY), 2003. * ''Truth and Shadows'' (novel; ''MechWarrior: Dark Age'' series), Roc (New York, NY), 2003. * ''Service for the Dead'' (novel; ''MechWarrior: Dark Age'' series), Roc (New York, NY), 2003.

Short Stories

* ''Rosemary: Scrambled Eggs on a Blue Plate'', Tor, 1992 (co-written with

Alan Rodgers Alan Rodgers (August 11, 1959 – March 8, 2014) was a science fiction and horror writer, editor, and poet. In the mid-eighties he was the editor for ''Night Cry''. His short stories have been published in a number of venues, including ''Weird ...

and collected in

Mike Resnick Michael Diamond Resnick (; March 5, 1942 – January 9, 2020) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He won five Hugo awards and a Nebula award, and was the guest of honor at Chicon 7. He was the executive editor of the defunct ma ...

's alternate history anthology ''

Alternate Kennedys ''Alternate Kennedys'' is an alternate history anthology edited by Mike Resnick, published in the United States by Tor Books. There are 26 stories in the anthology, including Resnick's own "Lady in Waiting". The remaining stories by various autho ...

'') * ''Now And in the Hour of Death'', Tor, 1992 (co-written with Debra Doyle and also collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology ''Alternate Kennedys'') * ''Souvenirs'', Tor, 1992 (co-written with Alan Rodgers and collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology ''

Alternate Outlaws ''Alternate Outlaws'' is an alternate history anthology edited by Mike Resnick, published in the United States by Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company bas ...

'')

References

External links

* * * (search pseudonyms too)
Travis Tea
- collective author of Atlanta Nights

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, James D. 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American children's writers American fantasy writers American male novelists American science fiction writers Living people People from White Plains, New York Novelists from New York (state) 1954 births 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers