Story of My Life
Born and raised in the Buckeye State, I’m a Phi Beta Scholar and a graduate of the University of Michigan, College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts, and the University of Michigan Law School. Seven long years in Ann Arbor, a lovely little campus town. There I had my share of life, learning, and love. I remember one day in late March when I’d just won a job offer from a Big Ten law firm in San Francisco. I was gazing out my window at a fresh snowfall. The lawn, blanketed in white, was beautiful and still, not yet sullied by boot prints, paw prints, or car exhaust. And I thought, “Damn, I'm glad I’m going to the Golden State where it never snows!”
In San Francisco, I practiced law at the Big Ten law firm, then moved on to become a legal writer, editor, publication manager, and executive editor at a national law book publisher. Why leave a lucrative legal practice? The time and mental demands were just too overwhelming. Since I was a child, I’d written fantasy fiction. I believed that was my true calling in life. But I’d never have the time to discover if I could succeed at writing or to work at my craft if I stayed in a punishing seventy-hour-a-week job.
My position in legal publishing was demanding, too, but nowhere near as onerous. I’d walk to the day job, walk home (I always made sure I could walk to work from my residence), prepare dinner for my family, and get to work. Work was researching, soul-searching, plotting, writing, reading stories and novels that would influence me well and inform me what other authors were up to, finishing projects, and mailing them out. I suffered sleep deprivation for more years than I care to say.
My advice to anyone in this position: you’ve got a job, but you’re yearning to write full-time. Keep the job, unless you’ve got a spouse or a partner who is willing and able to support you, a trust fund, or an inheritance. Turn off the TV. Limit your Internet time to activities that will further your writing. If you’ve got paid vacation time, take it and go work on your novel. (You can always lie about how awesome Kenya was.) Limit real-time socializing to very special occasions with family and friends and to professional writing conventions. And weekends? What are weekends?
All of the above holds true and more so, if you take the plunge and go freelance. Trust me, the professional writers (including Big Names; especially Big Names) are writing more than you.
After publishing my first stories, publishing my first novel, securing a movie option, and making money developing legal software, I took the plunge and went freelance, supplemented at first by consulting work with the law book publisher.
Now I’m the author of nine novels, including Summer of Love (Bantam), a San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book and Philip K. Dick Award finalist, and The Golden Nineties (Bantam), a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book, two dozen short stories, a novella, UFuh-O, A Sci Fi Comedy, and a screenplay, TESLA, A Worthy of His Time. Summer of Love, A Time Travel was published by Bast Books on Nook and Kindle in May, 2010. The Gilded Age, A Time Travel was published on Nook and Kindle in October, 2011.
I'm totally delighted to launch THE GARDEN OF ABRADABADRA, Book 1 of the Abracadabra Series, my big new Urban Fantasy. This is the advance ebook of a print edition being scheduled for 2013. The book took four years to research and write and the print edition is some eighteen-plus months down the road. So if you enjoy Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, or, of course, Lisa Mason and you've got a Nook or a Kindle, give this a try!
New books, stories, and screenplays are on the way!
I published my first story, “Arachne,” in Omni and have since published short fiction in magazines and anthologies worldwide, including Omni, Full Spectrum, Universe, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Unique, Transcendental Tales, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Immortal Unicorn, Tales of the Impossible, Desire Burn, Fantastic Alice, The Shimmering Door, Hayakawa Science Fiction Magazine, Unter Die Haut, and others. My stories have been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. New stories are also on the way!
My Omni story, “Tomorrow’s Child,” is presently in active development at Universal Studios. I’ve been saving the story for my own collection and never sold or published it anywhere other than Omni. I’m proud to present the ebook adaptation of “Tomorrow’s Child” for the first time on Nook and Kindle.
I live in the Golden State with my brilliant, handsome, and talented husband, the renowned artist and jeweler Tom Robinson.
Copyright © 2000--2012 by Lisa Mason. Photo by Beth Gwinn. All rights reserved.