Lisa Smedman

Lisa Smedman is a science fiction and fantasy writer, and a journalist. Her novel Extinction, set in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game's Forgotten Realms universe. Upon its release in January 2004, Extinction, book four in the War of the Spider Queen series by Wizards of the Coast, made the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction. Her trilogy The Lady Penitent continues this story. Book 1, Sacrifice of the Widow was released in March 2007 by Wizards of the Coast. Lisa has also written several other novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe. Heirs of Prophecy was released in 2002. Venom's Taste, the first book in her House of Serpents trilogy, was published by Wizards of the Coast in 2004. The second novel, Viper's Kiss, was published in 2005. The final book, Vanity's Brood, was released in March 2006. Lisa also writes children's books. Her novel Creature Catchers was released in March 2007 by Annick Press. Also from the same publisher is From Boneshakers to Choppers: The Rip-Roaring History of the Motorcycle. The Apparition Trail, a fantasy set in the Canadian west of 1884 (an alternative history world of her own creation) features a Mountie who tries to solve a series of paranormal disappearances. It was published by EDGE Science Fiction in 2004. Lisa is also the author of five novels set in the universe of the Shadowrun roleplaying game. These include The Lucifer Deck, Blood Sport, Psychotrope, The Forever Drug and Tails You Lose. She also wrote the novel The Playback War, set in FASA's VOR universe. Lisa has also had a number of short science fiction and fantasy stories published in various magazines and anthologies, and has had three of her one-plays produced by a Vancouver theatre group. In 1993 she was a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest for science fiction and fantasy writers. Lisa was one of the founders of Adventures Unlimited magazine, which provides scenarios and tips for roleplaying games. She has designed a number of adventures and written short fiction for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon roleplaying game's Ravenloft and Dark Sun lines, and has designed gaming products for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Cyberpunk, Immortal, Shatterzone, Millennium's End, and Deadlands. Her original games include Valhalla's Gate, a tabletop skirmish miniatures game drawn from Norse mythology and runic lore and Scrapyard 500, a tabletop road racing game. After working for more than 20 years as a journalist, Lisa now splits her week between her job as an editor/columnist at the Vancouver Courier, a weekly newspaper (for which she writes the column History's Lens) and writing fiction.