Janet E. Morris Memorial Tribute
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).