Holly Lisle passed away recently. She wrote fantasy, science fiction and romantic suspense. I first came across her as a name on the cover of a book I was shelving in the bookstore I was working in at the time. I would never have guessed that I would encounter her, let alone become friends.
It was many years later that I came across her again. I wanted to pursue my own goals of writing and was looking for anything online that might help me pursue that goal. Somehow I ended up at her Holly’s Writing Classes site, I think it was by way of the Forward Motion website. There I found a community of fellow writers who call her forums “the best place for writers on the ‘net’.” She had (and still has) policies in place to make it a safe place to discuss writing and writing related topics.
Holly always maintained her attitude of “you can do this” in all of her classes. She wanted anyone who had the dream of becoming an author to pursue it and be confident that they could write, whether it is flash fiction, short stories, novels or series. I have learned much from many of her classes. My first novel, Arthur Mace, Medieval Gumshoe, was a typical first novel of a writer – a big, hairy mess. I’d written it during NaNoWriMo one year. I liked the basic story but it was not put together in a very comprehensible way. I spent eighteen months going through Holly’s How To Revise Your Novel course, with support from folks in the forums. It came out infinitely better than it started. I published it on Amazon and Holly was good enough to buy a copy, read it and leave a nice review. Talk about a morale boost.
Somewhere along the way Holly asked me to be a moderator on her forums. I was flabbergasted that she’d even considered me for the position, let alone offered it to me. The moderators help out by answering questions about the classes, or general questions on writing, and offering encouragement to others working their way trough one of Holly’s classes. The mods also kept an eye on things, made sure that everyone followed the rules about getting along, and brought questions we couldn’t answer to Holly’s attention.
In all my time on the forums, there has been only one incident where someone broke the rules. Holly swiftly banned the offender for 90 days, saying that if they wanted to come back after that time, and would behave themselves, they could come back. That person never showed up again. That’s the type of ship she ran. She cared for her people on the forums and made sure that people didn’t stir up shit and cause problems.
Along the way, Holly and I got into conversations about things other than writing. She helped with several times we had medical problems with my wife, and Holly’s background as a ER nurse was invaluable in getting me through them. We’d talk over Zoom and she’d always get my strange sense of humor and odd references. I’d always hoped we’d get to meet in person some day, but alas, now that is not meant to be. There are precious few people I consider friends in this world and I counted Holly among them.
Everything I write seems so inadequate to convey the sense of loss I feel.
Holly was a friend, mentor, and all-around caliwandlous lady. She will be missed.