Barbara Hambly: Difference between revisions

* screenwriter

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| genre = [[Science fiction]], [[fantasy]], [[Horror fiction|horror]], [[Mystery fiction|mystery]], [[historical fiction]]

| movement =

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Her science fiction novels occur within an explicit [[Parallel universe (fiction)|multiverse]], as well as within previously existing settings (notably as established by ''[[Star Trek]]'' and ''[[Star Wars]]'').

 

Hambly was born in [[San Diego, California]] and grew up in [[Montclair, California|Montclair]], [[California]]. Her parents, Everett Edward Hambly Jr. and Florence Elizabeth (Moraski) Hambly, are from Fall River, Massachusetts; and Scranton, Pennsylvania (respectively). She has an older sister, Mary Ann Sanders, and a younger brother, Everett Edward Hambly, III. In her early teens, after reading [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', she affixed images of dragons to her bedroom door. She became interested in costumery from an early age, and has been a long-time participant in [[Society for Creative Anachronism]] activities. In the mid-1960s, the Hambly family spent a year in Australia.

 

Hambly has a Master's in [[Medieval History]] from the [[University of California, Riverside]]. She completed her degree in 1975 and spent a year in [[Bordeaux, France|Bordeaux]] as part of her studies.

 

 

 

Hambly was married for some years to [[George Alec Effinger]], a science fiction writer. He died in 2002. She lives in Los Angeles. Hambly speaks freely of suffering from [[seasonal affective disorder]], which was undiagnosed for some time.

 

Hambly's work has several themes. She has a penchant for unusual characters within the fantasy genre, such as the menopausal witch and reluctant scholar-lord in the ''Winterlands'' trilogy, or the [[Philology|philologist]] secret service agent in the vampire novels.<ref>[https://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20000911/Article_Hambly_Pellegrino.shtml "Review of female characters in Barbara Hambly novels"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061114031303/https://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20000911/Article_Hambly_Pellegrino.shtml |date=2006-11-14 }}, ''Strange Horizons''</ref>

 

This [[historical mystery]] series begins with ''A Free Man of Color'' (1997) and features [[The Benjamin January Mysteries|Benjamin January]], a brilliant, classically educated, free colored surgeon and musician living in [[New Orleans]] during the [[antebellum South|antebellum]] years of the 1830s. At the time, New Orleans had a large and prosperous population of free people of color. Born a slave, as his mother was enslaved, January was freed as a young child by his mother's lover, under the [[plaçage]] system. Provided with an excellent education, he gained fluency in several classical and modern languages, and was thoroughly versed in the whole of classical Western learning and arts. He studied medicine in Paris, where he trained as a surgeon. He returned to Louisiana to escape the memory of his late wife, a woman from North Africa. As a free black in Louisiana, he cannot find work as a surgeon. He earns a modest living by his exceptional talent as a musician.

 

 

====Short stories====

===Sherlock Holmes short story pastiches===

# "The Adventure of the Antiquarian’s Niece" (2003, ''Shadows Over Baker Street'', ed. Michael Reaves & John Pelan, narrated by Dr. Watson)

# "The Lost Boy" (2008, ''Gaslight Grimoire'', ed. J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec, narrated by Mrs. Mary Watson)

# "The Adventure of the Sinister Chinaman" (2010, ''Sherlock Holmes: Crossovers Casebook'', ed. Howard Hopkins, narrated by Dr. Watson)

 

===Winterlands===

 

===The Windrose Chronicles===

# ''Blood Maidens'' (2010)

# ''Magistrates of Hell'' (2012)

# ''Darkness on His Bones'' (2015)

 

The short story "Sunrise on Running Water" (2007, published in the anthology ''Dark Delicacies II: Fear'') is set in the world of the James Asher novels but does not feature Asher himself.

 

===Sun-Cross===

 

===Star Wars Universe===

 

===Raven Sisters ===

 

===Silver Screen Historical Mystery Series===

* ''One Extra Corpse'' (2023)

 

===Standalone works===

* ''Renfield: Slave of Dracula'' (2006)

* "Someone Else's Shadow" (short story in the ''Night's Edge'' anthology)

 

==Television credits==

* ''[[The Centurions (TV series)|The Centurions]]'' (1986)

* ''[[Starcom: The U.S. Space Force]]'' (1987)

==References==

 

==External links==

{{Wikiquote}}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/19990824175836/https://scifan.com/writers/hh/HamblyBarbara.asp Bibliography] at SciFan

* {{IMDb name|id=1628287|name=Barbara Hambly }}

* [https://thebookstacks.org/2011/10/30/barbara-hambly/ Podcast interview]

* [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c84x58mb/ Barbara Hambly papers] at the [[Online Archive of California]]

 

{{Authority control}}

 

[[Category:American fantasy writers]]

[[Category:American women short story writers]]

[[Category:Living people]]

[[Category:Writers from Riverside, California]]

[[Category:Writers of historical mysteries]]

[[Category:University of California, Riverside alumni]]

[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]

[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]

[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]

[[Category:21st-century American short story writers]]