One of my favorite authors died this past Friday. He was really one of the few authors I had read in the fantasy genre. The reasons I was a huge fan of his work is because he wrote about a number of different human races, unlike a majority of fantasy books that only seemed to have European roots.
I had a chance to meet him at Comic-Con in San Diego a few years back, but I ended up missing him by 10 minutes. And while living in Phoenix, I learned that he would often travel to Tuscon for vacation because he enjoyed the desert beauty.
I am not the type of person who get star struck by anyone. Have never been to a concert in my entire life and I have never went autograph seeking. However, David Gemmell was one of the few people that I always wanted to meet since he had an interesting backstory to his own life. It sucks that I won't get that chance now.
Here the link to the story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5230762.stm
Author David Gemmell, who has died aged 57, was recognised as the best - and bestselling - writer of heroic fantasy.
<!-- S IIMA --> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="203"> <tbody><tr><td> http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41941000/jpg/_41941226_david_gemmell203tw.jpg David Gemmell died at the age of 57 following heart bypass surgery
</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- E IIMA --> He created many characters who will live in the minds of his fans for decades.
When I became editorial director of Random House's SF and Fantasy imprint Legend in 1992, he had already been published there for eight years and built a very strong reputation.
In fact the imprint, which had a long history within Arrow Books, was renamed after his first novel in the late 1980s.
David told me that he had been diagnosed with cancer in the early 1980s and writing that novel, Legend, was a release for him.
It is the story of a city under siege and he came to believe that if the city survived, so would he. They both did.
<!-- S IBOX --> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="208"> <tbody><tr> <td width="5">http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif</td> <td class="sibtbg"> http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41947000/jpg/_41947826_jarrold_203.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif David felt he should write about strong - though sometimes flawed - characters http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif
John Jarrold
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/inline_dashed_line.gif
<!-- S ILIN --> Send your comments about David Gemmell (http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2891&edition=1&ttl=20060728160937)
<!-- E ILIN -->
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!-- E IBOX --> I live in Hastings, as did David at that time, so we often saw each other down here, as well as talking, in those pre-email days, on the phone regularly about business matters.
We chatted about his books of course, but also about other authors' work - he was a great fan of British fantasy author Robert Holdstock, whose novel Mythago Wood won the World Fantasy Award.
Another favourite was the classic Western writer Louis L'Amour. David felt he should write about strong - though sometimes flawed - characters, who had a sense of honour and did the right thing, however difficult.
Over the years, David's sales increased and his novels always hit the bestseller lists.
He always delivered on time, which is a joy for a harried editor, and also acknowledged the people who worked on his books, which was much appreciated by copy-editors and proofreaders, among others.
Recently, he had started an acclaimed series of novels based on the Trojan War.
He died far too young.