Tanith Lee R.I.P.

Tanith Lee (19 September 1947 – 24 May 2015) was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of over 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book (Animal Castle), and many poems. She also wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. She was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award (also known as the August Derleth Award), for her book Death's Master. -Wikipedia 

I only recently learned Tanith Lee had died last year. I can't say I was her biggest fan; I've only read one of her books: Kill the Dead. Yet it was a book I loved in high school, a book I still think about often. She was a real outsider: a woman and genre writer who kept writing despite being largely ignored by critics, exploited by publishers and loved by her fans.Precisely those qualities that had built her career – her endless fertility and constant self-reinvention – were liabilities in a publishing world obsessed with strict category and with authors who produce the same reliable product. At one point, she complained that she was writing books because she could do no other, but was stacking them unpublished in a cupboard. She just kept writing. I admire that.

Rest in Peace.