Perseid Press recently announced the passing of author, editor, and publisher Janet E. Morris (JEM, August 2024). A group of us who have known and written for her and published by her, decided to honor her memory and her legacy with this group memorial. This ad-hoc remembrance has organically turned into a virtual shrine. This post initially has ~17 contributions, but collecting testimonials can be chaotic and more comments may be added. Janet and Chris Morris made a remarkable creative couple, and our deepest condolences extend to Chris.

As a brief introduction, we open with a bit taken from her Wikipedia page, which captures her work by the numbers well.

Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than forty novels, many co-authored with her husband  Chris Morris  or others. Her debut novel, written as Janet E. Morris, was  High Couch of Silistra , the first in a quartet of character-driven novels with a female protagonist. According to original publisher  Bantam Books , the Silistra Quartet had over four million copies in print when the fourth volume,  The Carnelian Throne was published. Morris has contributed short fiction to the  shared universe  fantasy series  Thieves’ World , and created, orchestrated, and edited the series  Heroes in Hell . Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on non-lethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.

Black Gate has featured many of these books. Most of her work is available via the Perseid Press website; at the end of this article are links to Black Gate reviews of many of these. Read now personal notes from Janet E. Morris’ Hellions (synonymous with Heroes in Hell and/or Perseid Press contributors).

Some Perseid Press Contributors (aka Hellions) Remember JEM (Quick Links)

• William Hiles
• Diana Wicker
• Larry Atchley
• Alex Butcher
• Sean Poage
• Michael H. Hanson: “Beyond These Walls”
• Tom Barczak
• Richard Groller
• Andrew Paul Weston
• Shebat Legion
• Charles Gramlich
• Walter Rhein
• Michael Armstrong: Janet Morris: Kick Ass Literary Superhero
• Roy Mauritsen
• Bill Barnhill
• Seth Lindberg
• Joe Bonadonna
• Bill Snider – Zombie Zak

Diana Wicker

I first found Mrs. Janet’s stories in the Thieves’ World books when I was a child. I was privileged to have been allowed to assist her with office duties in the past. I will forever miss her.

William Hiles

Diana Wicker

I first found Mrs. Janet’s stories in the Thieves’ World books when I was a child. I was privileged to have been allowed to assist her with office duties in the past. I will forever miss her.

Larry Atchley

Our Commander has journeyed beyond The Veil. Afterlife and everlasting glory to her. May the memory of her life and her stories never fade. She created the greatest shared universe series of all time: Heroes in Hell. And she wrote many great novels and stories, and edited countless others as well. She co-wrote and edited many books and stories with her husband, Chris Morris, including those of The Sacred Band, timeless tales of Heroic Fantasy Fiction, which are some of my favorite stories ever written. She was a breeder of horses and a proponent of the use of non lethal weapons in the military, both endeavors that she and Chris undertook together. She was a mentor to me and many other writers. She will be missed by many and she and her stories shall never be forgotten. All hail our Commander!

Alex Butcher

RIP Janet, you were our muse, our mentor, our friend, our editor, our wordsmith and our Commander. I’d have given up writing years ago without your encouragement and support. The world is darker for your passing, but the flame of your legacy will burn on. So many books, so many words, so much joy and so many lives touched. It’s been a privilege and an honour to have known you, worked with you, and to have read your work. You were a trailblazer for women in fantasy and sci-fi – in what was, and to an extent still is, a field dominated by male writers and male characters. You were fearless, daring, and feisty and the world is better for it.

Thank you for everything, my dear friend. May you find peace in a better realm than this. Eternal life to you Commander, and ever lasting glory.

Sean Poage

I’m just one of very many who have been blessed to know Janet Morris. If it were only for the enjoyment of reading her work, that would have been enough. But Janet also made me a better writer. I treasure the time I’ve been able to spend with her and Chris. She’s left a legacy, not only of brilliant books, but in all the writers, like me, who she generously mentored because of her kind spirit and love for the written word. If interested, I have more to say here.

Michael H. Hanson: “Beyond These Walls”

I hear the beating wings of night
the sirens of the sleeping world
I feel the touch of soft starlight
as warm eternity unfurls.
And so I’m bid to leave anon
this humble ‘bode of gentle friends
and sighing simple sweet farewells
I bow to life renewed again.
Beyond these walls of flesh I go
unto a realm of peaceful leaves
to float upon a Forest’s glow
and bathe in Heaven’s tender breeze.

Tom Barczak

I reached out to Janet initially, or at least to a pseudonym she was using at the time, There was something inescapable that I recognized.

After we connected I remembered her name from the old Thieves World and first Heroes in Hell books. She took her precious time to guide me and set me on my writers path. She didn’t have to. Her own writing has always evoked a tempest in me; blurring the line between things sacred and things profane. As in art as in life. With her loss to us I grieve, but her spirit and her words both gain new life. So I say, Life to you, Commander, and everlasting glory.

Richard Groller

Andrew Paul Weston

It’s always a treasure to be invited to take part in something so much larger than yourself. And I – along with so many others – was allowed to do just that with the Heroes in Hell universe. A place where different people could come together under a unified banner to strive for a common purpose: To entertain readers within a vast and wondrous playground of marvelous design. And all because of Janet’s extraordinary vision.

She was a pillar and arch; a blazing star; a square and compass to us all, who traversed the great mosaic of speculative fiction in a spectacular way. And now the star has fallen, the world will be a darker place and she will be sorely missed. . .

But not forgotten.

Shebat Legion

Rest in Peace, Janet Morris. You have been more than an inspiration to me. I am honored to have been able to write for you. It is not given to many to be able to meet your idol. Journey well. You will be missed.

Charles Gramlich

I first read Janet Morris in the Thieves’ World series where her style and characterizations stood out even among other outstanding authors. I followed her as she took some Thieves’ World characters into novels and as she wrote, edited, and produced various heroic fantasy collections. She was an author I much admired and who has influenced my own writing. By all accounts Janet was equally as sincere and talented in every aspect of her life. I’m sad and a little angry at the world today for taking her away. I posted a longer retrospective on the Swords & Planet League.

Walter Rhein

I learned a lot about writing from Janet Morris. I had the good fortune of working with her on several book projects. At that time, I’d had books published with other small presses, but nobody I’d ever worked with came close to matching Janet’s expertise.

When I received a manuscript back from Janet, I went through it line by line and contemplated all of her notes. Her instincts were special, and I appreciated how much flexibility she gave me. “You don’t have to do exactly what I suggest, but you have to do something,” is a succinct paraphrasing of our work relationship. She was also the first editor I had who emphasized that it would be my name on the cover, so I had to maintain ownership. She expressed remorse when I revealed my mistaken assumption that I had to defer to her. “No, the book is yours.”

The books that I published with Janet Morris changed my writing trajectory. We all remember with fondness the people who awakened us to the knowledge that exists in that uncomfortable space just beyond our conscious perception. Janet showed me things I will never forget, and I’ll always be grateful for that. We’ve lost a great one, but her special influence lives on in the beautiful art she helped bring into the world.

Michael Armstrong: Janet Morris: Kick Ass Literary Superhero

I met Janet Morris in 1984 when she bought my second short story, “Going After Arviq,” for her Afterwar anthology. I’d had the idea to send it to Janet when I read in Locus that she was editing a collection of stories that proposed life could go on after nuclear war. I queried her (“Dear Ms. Morris, do you want to look at a story about Inupiaq whalers rediscovering their culture in the far north of Alaska?”) and she wrote back “Don’t ‘Ms.’ me and we’ll get along just fine. Send me the story.”

She bought it the day she received it and told me in a phone call.

Janet proved to be a lifelong friend and mentor. When I needed an agent she recommended me to hers. When I had doubts about a book sale, she called around to see if other editors might look at it. She invited me to play in her Heroes in Hells series, and boy was that fun. When Baen Books refused to pay the final advance on my second novel, Bridge Over Hell, and spiked it, 25 years later Janet published it for her Perseid Press. She published my latest novel, too.

Damn, could she edit. She did the best line edits I ever had on a book. She could be firm and harsh without being destructive. I never questioned her edits because quick experience taught me she was right.

Janet had strong opinions and did not suffer fools. I saw her go head-to-head with a SFWA Grand Master and make him file the serial numbers off his award winning novel because he didn’t want to abide by the Heroes In Hell master agreement he’d signed. She could charm high-level D.C. defense contractors as easily as New York editors. She tried to end war through her nonlethal weapons work. She wrote everything from historical high fantasies to spy thrillers to near-future high-tech novels.

Janet loved Chris the most and after that, in no order, came the bass guitar, fast cars, cats, dogs, and Morgan horses. She also loved the writers she discovered and nurtured. For those of us who came to be one of those writers, we loved her almost as fiercely, and we will miss her physical presence terribly and take comfort in her intense spirit that lives on in all of us.

Roy Mauritsen

I have, perhaps, a slightly different relation with Janet Morris. Originally, we connected as I had authored a couple of novels which she was rather impressed with and even offered a wonderful blurb about. But despite being an author I never wrote for Janet. As she was also taken with my artistic designs on my book covers. It was not long after, that I started to help Janet with designing the book covers for the re-releases of her books under Perseid Press, as well as other titles under the Perseid Press banner. This was a working relationship and friendship that developed over the next decade and nearly 40 newly designed book covers for Janet Morris since. The friendship also further bonded over our mutual love of horses. Both myself and my wife enjoyed riding and I think this brought a more kindred relationship. Of course, I very much cherished those rare opportunities to visit with Janet and Chris in person.

There was one particular series I remember most fondly working with her on, and remains my most favorite memory of Janet Morris. When her Silistra series was originally published, as she told it, she was not fond of the cover the publisher had gone with. The cover artist at the time was none other than Boris Vallejo. Now, as a person who studied fine art, I studied the masters, like Rembrandt, Degas, VanGogh, Michealangelo…  y’know… all the ninja turtles. But as an ‘80’s kid, who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons, names like Elmore, Easly, Frazetta …  and Boris Vallejo were just as influential to me. And here was Janet telling me how she never liked her original Boris Vallejo book covers, and could I do the covers for her rerelease. I was flattered, of course, but problem number one for me was… I cannot relate to that ever being a problem in the first place. And problem number two… what the hell was I supposed to do better than friggin Boris Vallejo??? Eventually, I developed an entirely different take on the covers, and for what it’s worth, Janet was far more approving of my approach, than she ever was of Boris.

I have been proud to have served as Art director and cover designer for Janet Morris for the better part of a decade, and more importantly, to call her a friend.

Bill Barnhill

Once in a great while, you meet someone who challenges you to exceed your limitations and grow to heights you never dreamed you could reach. Janet Morris did that for me and many others. We met ten years ago, and I was already in awe of her writing. Her character Tempus first appeared in her story “Vashanka’s Minion” within the second volume of the genre-pioneering shared-world series Thieves World. The story’s main character, Tempus, is also the main character of her Sacred Band book series. Tempus is the most exciting and evocative character I’ve encountered in my fifty years of reading. Janet’s book Dream Dancer, the first in her Kerrion Space trilogy, inspired me to write and is one of my top five all-time favorites.

So I jumped at it when she offered this previously unpublished aspiring author the chance to write a story in her Bangsian anthology series Heroes in Hell, which has continued running across twenty-five anthologies over forty years. She walked me through thirteen revisions of my story, taking the time after each to explain how I could improve my writing and the story. Very few editors display this level of generosity, mentorship, and attention to craft. From my experiences and others’ stories, I can attest she made it a daily habit.

A true polymath and Renaissance woman, our discussions covered non-lethal weaponry (which she and her husband pioneered), history and legends of the Sumerians and Hittites (she wrote an acclaimed biography of Hittite king Suppiluliumas), philosophy, and much more.

I feel honored to have known her and wish I had known her more. Her death on August 10, 2024, is not just the loss of my friend but the loss of a legend, and a great light in this world has gone out.

Seth Lindberg

I will miss JEM’s love for elevating other storytellers’ craft and her uncanny ability to seamlessly blend myth,  fantasy, & history in her writing.

• REVIEWS: We first met ~2013 as I moderated the Goodread’s Sword & Sorcery Group and she challenged a statement I made that Lovecraftian-Cosmic-Horror differed from elements of classical myths. She schooled me, her insights of ancient myths proved more expansive than my views. I was early into reviewing, so I read/reviewed her Beyond Sanctuary book (Sacred Band series) and, beyond enjoying the story and feeling like I was living within the Baroque style cover, I was struck by not being able to discern between history, myth, and fantasy.
• INTERVIEWS: This prompted me to go beyond reviewing books and start an interview series on “Art & Beauty in Fantasy Fiction” with Janet being the first up to bat (I plan to repost that on Black Gate soon). She pushed people’s expectations of sexuality and the role of women in fantasy fiction since 1976, and having her perspective was eye-opening. That interview was Jan 2014, and the decade since I’ve interviewed 27 others (including Carol Berg, C.S. Friedman, Darrell Schweitzer, Anna Smith Spark, C. Dean Andersson…). Black Gate started broadcasting this series ~2018.
• WRITING: As I was beginning to independently publish, she invited me to contribute to Perseid Press, and I’ve been honored to have over seven stories published across the Heroes in Hell and Heroika series.
• ROLE MODEL: as much as I am honored to have known JEM, learned from her and developed by role in the writing community, my experience is not unique. Testimonials from dozens of aspiring and veteran authors are being posted. Her legacy is admirable, and she serves as a beautiful role model.
• A TOAST: Cheers, dear JEM. Thank you for sharing your passion and igniting mine. “Life to you and everlasting glory!”

Joe Bonadonna

I first learned of Janet way back in 1978, about a year after her The High Couch of Silistra had been published, the first book in her Silistra Quartet. I read almost everything she published after that, and became a fan. She had a gift for words and plotting, for going deep into her characters and themes. There was wisdom, intelligence, insight, and a love of history and mythology in her stories which I truly enjoyed.

I loved her Thieves World™ stories, especially when she began her amazing series of nine novels, which also included the short stories she wrote for Thieves World ™. I consider The Sacred Band of Stepsons saga some of the finest heroic fantasy ever written, and which I had the pleasure of reviewing for Black Gate when they were all republished by her and her husband’s (and occasional co-author, Christopher Crosby Morris) own publishing company, Perseid Press. It was through the 2011 Perseid Press reboot of her long-running Heroes in Hell™ series, which she created for Baen Books in 1986, that brought me to Janet’s attention.

I wrote reviews of the first three volumes of the 21st Century Hell series, all published here on Black Gate. To my surprise, Janet (and Chris!) liked my reviews, checked out my own work, and invited me to write for the series. I was, to say the least, knocked off my feet. There are now 25 volumes in the Heroes in Hell™ series, going back to 1986. I have written seven novellas and co-authored two others for the last seven volumes, and also wrote one novella for her heroic fantasy anthology, Heroika: Dragon Eaters — and writing each of those tales was both hard work and pure joy.

Janet was a huge influence on me, and a fantastic mentor. She was tough but fair and most helpful editor: she set a high-bar and challenged me to bring on my A-Game. She inspired me to write to the best of my ability, which I did my best to achieve. She taught me many things about going deep with characters, to having insightful themes, to keep the dialog and action moving at a good pace, and thus moving the story forward. She taught me about the use of language, inspired me to do research, schooled me in little-known historical figures, and shared her love and infinite knowledge of mythology with me. She made me a better writer than I ever thought I could be.

Back in 1978 I never dreamed I’d be writing for her some 30-odd years later, much less being made a co-manager of her Facebook groups, as well as handling Nondisclosure Agreements, contracts, creating a file for each story submitted, and even help edit. And more than all that, I was blessed with the gift of becoming friends with her and Chris.

Janet Morris was a writer of her time, ahead of her time, and even a writer who could move back and forth across Time. She is the stuff of legend now, and what she taught me and all of her writers will never be forgotten. Thank you and you shall be sorely missed are words too small to convey my feelings, but nevertheless . . . “O Commander, my Commander. Rest ye well in glory everlasting!”

Bill Snider, aka Zombie Zak

Memories.

These are the powerful building blocks that form both history, and the perceptions that one incorporates into one’s self as one journeys forward.  I remember my first interaction with Janet, it was when she was posting classical art imagery after the release of Lawyers in Hell.  For a lark, I commented interpretively on some of them.  Apparently, that piqued some curiosity, and we would exchange a few words.  Shortly after that, I was invited to come and play in the Hell universe.  This was cool as hell (pun intended), as I read the original HIH series and always loved them.  She was patient, incisive, with a penchant for cutting the dross out of a story as and when needed; I enjoyed that process immensely, learned a lot and feel that Janet’s professionalism helped me become a better writer.

Never to be forgotten.  As always and with everything, Be Brightness.

Memories are all that I have.

I have plenty of stuff, things with contextually relatable value systems, but in the end, what do they make you become, stuff?

Memories, on the other hand, are the glue that strings one apart and puts one together. It’s the context of understanding, laboriously bringing one forward in time from the moment one gestated, to the moment in which one finds oneself, now. Memories sort out the false images, the idols, the labels we ascribe to the things that we forget about. It impugnes ones honour not to experience these memories, oft times without intending to do so.

Our memories are the shining beacon upon which we rail, and roil, and recoil from when we shatter aghast upon the rocks that bridges those moments back upon our awareness. We both adore and abhor the things that lie in wait upon those shores, the terror and the joy mixed and interspersed without rhyme or persistence. Joyful memories are the drug upon which we can never satiate ourselves with, as the real world too oftentimes intrudes with contrary intents.

We are the centre of the storm, as much as we are the storm itself, constantly pushing forward with bluster and steam until we are spent. Then we we lay in wait, for the gale forces to gather once again, and push us into the maelstrom of mayhem again and again and again until we are no more. If not for the bright moments we infuse with purpose and meaning and joy, there would be naught but the night, everlasting, without light.

We are not monsters, nor robots, not pieces of furniture to be set in place, nor become fathomable; we are the moment that we live in, constantly adding pieces of memories in full and in part, to the substrata that enriches both ourselves and those around us, together, or distantly ensconced, but still one and amongst the crowd; we grow, when we learn, and we learn from the experiences we absorb, both good and ill.

The best we can accomplish, is to be ready to share, to bridge the gap both from ourselves and those with whom we make friends, foes and random strangers we encounter on our journey. No one person is an island within the storm, as the storm brings us together, as much as it pulls us apart.

Memories, they do not merely define us, they are the map upon which we ride, each and every one of them important in their own right. Important in the way that they enrich us, for each moment is but a piffle of time, lost, found, rewound into the skein of one’s path towards whatever meaning is intended for one, by one’s own hand defined.

Be aware, be accepting, be Brightness.

“O Commander, my Commander. Rest ye well in glory everlasting!”

Black Gate Reviews of some of Janet Morris’ and Chris Morris’ “Sacred Band” novels (Perseid Press)

• Beyond Sanctuary
• Beyond the Veil
• Beyond Wizardwall
• Tempus and his Right-Side Companion Niko
• City at the End of Time
• Tempus Unbound
• Storm Seed
• The Sacred Band
• The Fish, The Fighters and The Song-Girl

Heroes in Hell . . .

• Rogues in Hell
• Lawyers in Hell
• Dreamers in Hell

Others . . .

• Outpassage
  
• I, The Sun
• The Silistra Quartet

Joe Bonadonna is the author of the Heroic Fantasies Mad Shadows—Book One: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser (winner of the 2017 Golden Book Readers’ Choice Award for Fantasy); Mad Shadows—Book Two: The Order of the Serpent; Mad Shadows—Book Three: The Heroes of Echo Gate; the Space Opera Three Against The Stars and its sequel, the Sword & Planet space adventure, The MechMen of Canis-9. In collaboration with author David C. Smith, he’s written the Sword & Sorcery pirate adventure, Waters of Darkness. With author and artist Erika M. Szabo, Joe penned Three Ghosts in a Black Pumpkin (winner of the 2017 Golden Books Judge’s Choice Award for Children’s Fantasy), and its sequel, The Power of the Sapphire Wand. He also has stories appearing in: Azieran: Artifacts and Relics; Savage Realms Monthly (March 2022); Griots 2: Sisters of the Spear; Heroika I: Dragon Eaters; Poets in Hell; Doctors in Hell; Pirates in Hell; Lovers in Hell; Mystics in Hell; Liars in Hell; Monsters in Hell; Sinbad: The New Voyages, Volume 4; Unbreakable Ink; Stand Together—A Collection of Poems and Short Stories for Ukraine; the forthcoming anthology Legion House; the shared-world of Sha’Daa: Toys, in collaboration with author Shebat Legion; and with David C. Smith for the shared-universe anthology, The Lost Empire of Sol. In addition to his fiction, Joe has written numerous articles, book reviews and author interviews for Black Gate online magazine.

Visit Joe’s Amazon Author’s page. His Facebook author’s page is Bonadonna’s Bookshelf

S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He is also the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group and an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades Vol I and Vol II, DMR’s Terra Incognita, and the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull.