Ave Atque Vale Holly Lisle

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is a post I didn’t want to write for at least another thirty years, or possibly for the rest of my life, since Holly was only a year and change older than I, and she might well have outlived me.

I found out yesterday, from Suburban in comments that Holly Lisle had died of cancer. She died on the 27th of August, according to Wikipedia.

The last time I thought of Holly Lisle, a friend/commenter on this blog who is also a friend of hers asked if I’d heard from her because he hadn’t and the blog hadn’t been updated in some months. I told him I’d also not heard — in fact my last two emails had got unanswered — and I thought I should email her, but then it got lost in the shuffle of trying to organize a wedding overseas.

Which is why yesterday hit like an anvil.

I never met Holly in person. Because I’d read her for the first time in the 90s I thought she was ten years older than I or so. Nah. She just started going and stuck with it. And of course I tried to rewrite the one book no one in trad pub would buy…. 8 times before I got a grip on reality.

I was surprised when we “met” online to find she was not quite two years older than I.

I’ve been breaking my head to figure out how we “met” online. I think I’ve reconstructed it mentally. I had read one of her stories and wanted to promote it. Because of the nature of this blog, I wasn’t sure if she wanted to be associated with me, so I tried to find her email so I could ask her permission to mention her. (Either here or on MGC? I don’t remember.)

At any rate I couldn’t find her email, so I just mentioned it or promoted somewhere. At which point she emailed me. Having noticed an uptick in her Amazon sales, she searched and found my mention. She sent me a bookfunnel copy of The Longview Chronicles.

Which revived my love for space opera, which had been lost for a while.

After that we corresponded. I didn’t always agree with her ideas on why some of her marketing hadn’t worked, but she was trying to figure things out.

During the horrible year of 2020 she was one of my reality checks and online mental health supports.

After I moved and things got a bit crazy for a while, we weren’t in as frequent a contact. But she sometimes dropped into my email or into the comments at MGC and was always a class act.

Through Holly I found that my experiences in Traditional Publishing weren’t that unusual. And I borrowed a lot of her courage (she had enough to spare) to get used to the new, exciting world of indie publishing.

Last we talked she was genuinely excited for her Ohio novels, and trying to figure out all the ins and outs of how to make it a big success.

I’m so very sorry she slipped out of this world while I wasn’t looking.

But in another way, she will never be gone. Her books will continue to be read. Her lessons online — I hope her family keeps them on line — will continue to help new writers figure out how to make the story in their heads the story that enthralls someone else, in their heads.

Yesterday, as I frantically tried to confirm her passing, I came across a blog post that might be her very last gift to me. In it she spoke of breaking into publishing and how important it was to write the stories that are uniquely ours.

Which I am in fact doing now. I only hope to have enough time.

Farewell Holly. I know you didn’t agree with me on the afterlife, but as Heinlein said of Theodore Sturgeon, whatever else is true, I’m sure a spirit like yours couldn’t be entirely extinguished.

Nothing is lost, nothing is created. You’ve only changed and are for the moment inaccessible to me.

You were a writer to your fingertips and a battler who didn’t know how to give up.

Somewhere, you are creating and seeing very clearly. And someday, out of time, we’ll meet again.

Until then, fare thee well my friend. I’m looking forward to discussing everything you’ll have learned, created and figured out.

When we meet again.

51 thoughts on “Ave Atque Vale Holly Lisle”

  3. Ah, dammit. She was one of the good ones. We never officially “met,” but she helped me out back in the day, too. I’m going to miss that woman.

    I hadn’t heard, either. Stuck in my own mess, entangled with trifles.

    May her family and loved ones be blessed with grace, strength, and wisdom. May her memory live on in those she touched in life, and may their example reflected shine on into eternity. May you one day meet again in a better place, and even if your first words are “Hah! Told ya so!” I think she might just laugh this time.

    Our time on this world is transitory, but poignant. Few are those whose love of the world is so much that it reaches so far. Fare thee well, Holly. Better times.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I am, at 66, confounded by how many wonderful people I’ll ne’er get to meet…

    Maybe for the best (for her, anyway). I start off telling carp-worthy jokes that irritate my wife.

    I cannot affect Holly now; but I am looking at her science fiction as a reward for my next three (minor) operations… Maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas…vv

    Pro-Tip: Don’t be fat when you get old.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lH2IJEY1sY

    Liked by 1 person

            1. Not simply that (although that doesn’t help.) High stress affects the body’s insulin resistance, encouraging stockpiling carbs for emergency use. Maybe. It’s a theory.

              Another theory is that demons use the stress-induced lower resistance to them as an opportunity to fatten us up.

              Rgrds,

              RES

              Liked by 1 person

              1. That hypothesis (the first one) sounds reasonable, given that our compulsions frequently result from 100,000+ years of survival in an environment that didn’t include either food kitchens or handouts. Good times, eat what you can. Bad (stressful) times; double down. We did not evolve for times of continuous plenty.

                Liked by 1 person

  8. Oh, Sarah, I’m so sorry to hear that. And learning about it the way you did makes it doubly hard. I remember Google stalking an old college buddy, someone I’d been close to, only to find his obituary. I last saw him in 1987, and I still miss him.

    But as you said, some day, out of time, we’ll meet again. Here’s a cyber-hug.

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  11. I am very sorry to hear this.

    My sister and I took her 2-year novel class several years ago. That is why we were able to actually finish the book.

    I hope they continue to run the programs and keep encouraging writers.

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  12. I’d seen her comment on these pages so much that I had to look up her books to confirm that yes, I actually own (and love) several of them. May her memory be a blessing and may her books continue to sell.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Pingback: May Her Memory Be for a Blessing: Holly Lisle | Building Worlds

  16. To me its always odd how some things connect. I read a book many years ago that I really liked and was thinking I would like to read it again. But while I remember the plot, I could not think of the title or author.

    I find out HL has passed, and I look up her wiki page, and the book I was looking for was her first book “Fire in the Mist”. And there is a third book in that series that I don’t think I ever read.

    I love HL’s writing book “Mugging Your Muse” and her “Devils Point” trilogy.

    She will be missed, and I’m going to mark her passing by buying a bunch of her ebooks and catching up.

    Condolences to her friends and family. May she live on forever in her works and those who follow her.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. “Where now the horse and the rider?

    “Where is the horn that was blowing?

    “Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?

    “Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?

    “Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?

    “They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;

    “The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.

    “Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning,

    “Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?”

    –J R R Tolkien

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I looked up the original reference after seeing a version used at a funeral in a TV series made in the 1970s – found it was by the medieval churchman known as the Venerable Bede. I found it strangely comforting, as I am in the process of losing a few fellow bloggers, veterans and others in my life –

      We seem to give them back to you, O God, who gave them first to us. Yet as you did not lose them in giving, so we do not lose them by their return. Not as the world gives do you give. What you give you do not take away. For what is yours is also ours. We are yours and life is eternal. And love is immortal, and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is but the limit of our sight.

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  19. I apologize for kinda dropping it on the thread the other day, but it seemed pretty urgent to make it known, especially since both File 770 and Del Arroz had both learned about it late.

    She did a lot for the field.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. “I just feel like I let her sneak out of the room without getting to tell her goodbye.”

        I’ve felt that way for most of the friends and relatives I’ve lost; there were very few I did get to say goodbye to.

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        1. Folks get really creeped out if you say “goodbye” ahead of time. (grin)

          (Seriously) I get by with making sure folks know what I think. Kept sis up to date, and when she was just -gone-, the was nothing important unsaid. Ditto Pop. So very glad I did that.

          Likewise, I try to withhold comments that might later seem … regrettable.

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          1. All good points. For me “saying goodbye” is essentially as you said; keep everyone you care about up-to-date. It doesn’t work for some; some of those I cared about and lost without warning were ones I only saw occasionally, say every month oe two.

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  22. Will your ashes float like some foreign boat
    Or will they sink absorbed forever?
    Will the Atlantic coast have its final boast?
    Nothing else contained you, ever

    — Lou Reed, “Cremation”

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  23. Sigh. If you live long enough everybody you like passes away on you. In this internet-attached realm we often find our closest friends are people we’ve never met, and notification of their promotion to a new life reaches us late if ever.

    May Holly’s new phase prove rewarding.

    Rgrds,

    RES

    Liked by 1 person

  24. I used to get Holly’s newsletters. They were very helpful. I also recall her warning about tongue cancer, and her speculation that artificial sweeteners or other food additives might be part of the increase in diagnoses. I’m sorry that the Big C came back in whatever shape or form.

    I learned a lot from her newsletters and appreciate how hard she worked to encourage new authors.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Sad to hear that. I only have one or two of her’s, and in paperback. But I recall liking her stories. RIP Ms Lisle.

    Such happens I guess. I recall reading Jerry Pournelle’s blog during his last SF con, where he caught flu and died. There are worse ways to lay down your quill pen.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. I very recently came across the writing podcast she did with her daughter, and I’m finding the material to be super helpful and encouraging. I was looking into taking a class and learned today she had passed away. Very sad. May she rest in peace and thank you very much for teaching others to write.

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