stuart (04/17/83)
From: Stuart.Friedberg
Does anyone have any biographical data on M. A. Foster, author of:
The Gameplayers of Zan
The Warriors of Dawn
The Day of the Kleesh
The Morphodite
Transformer
Waves
There aren't any notes in any of his/her books that I have,
although there was (finally) a dedication in Transformer.
Stu Friedberg
{seismo, allegra}!rochester!stuart UUCP
stuart@rochester ARPAtim (04/17/83)
All I know is that he lives in Greensboro NC, and often attends conventions. We have a few common acquaintances, but I've never met him. (Oh yeah -- I believe he is a Catholic.) Tim Maroney
jsw@hogpc.UUCP (11/07/83)
I have read several books (all Daw, I think) by M.A. Foster, including
The Gameplayers of Zan, The Warriors of Dawn, Waves, The Morphodite,
and Transformer, and highly recommend them. I would appreciate any
comments on the following:
1) Does anyone know where I might obtain a copy of The Day of the Klesh,
the third book in the Gameplayers-Warriors sequence, although it was
supposedly written first. I tried the publisher and it is out of print.
2) Does anyone know of any other works by M.A. Foster, including short
stories, etc. in magazines ?
3) Does anyone know anything about who M.A. Foster is ? Nowhere in, on,
or about any of the books does it say what M.A. stands for or give any
biographical information about the author. I had the impression while
reading The Gameplayers of Zan that the author is female. Its hard to
describe exactly why, but the character development and portrayal of
female characters was uncommonly good. It occurred to me that M.A. Foster
may by either a pen-name or just an attempt to conceal the sex of the
first name from borderline-sexist SF readers who won't always pick up
a book by an unknown female author. Does anyone know the facts ?
- John Soltes, ...hogpc!jswandree@uokvax.UUCP (11/15/83)
#R:hogpc:-27600:uokvax:5400007:000:743
uokvax!andree Nov 13 01:07:00 1983
/***** uokvax:net.sf-lovers / hogpc!jsw / 6:19 pm Nov 8, 1983 */
... an attempt to conceal the sex of the first name from borderline-sexist
SF readers who won't always pick up a book by an unknown female author.
- John Soltes, ...hogpc!jsw
/* ---------- */
@begin[:-)]
Gee, I never thought of myself as borderline sexist. But since I don't always
pick up books by unknown female authors, I guess I am. Does the fact that I
don't always pick up books by unknown male authors (or actually, authors
of unknown sex) mitigate this? Do I have to quit buying books by known
authors so I can buy books by unknown female authors (I can't afford to do
both) if I don't want to be tagged as sexist?
@end[:-)]
<mikehoey%NRL-AIC@sri-unix.UUCP (11/17/83)
From: Dan Hoey <hoey@NRL-AIC> I have enjoyed M. A. Foster's books for a long time, and also wondered about the author's sex. When book reviews and some discussions in SF-Lovers (around 1980-81?) used the male pronoun, I wondered. After all, Tiptree had everyone confused too, and there were those well- developed female characters in the books. Somehow the whole tone of tWoD seemed the kind of sensitive, caring writing that I have come to expect from Bradley, Clayton, and Norton and no male authors. My doubts were put to rest when I read (and I believe this was in SF- Lovers) a note from someone who knew Meg Foster and claimed she was the woman who wrote as M. A. Foster. Last month I went to RoVaCon and met Mike Foster, the author of all those good books. We talked about the ler language--he says it's derived from Chinese. I urged him to work on an idea he had considered --a collection of short ler stories, perhaps along the lines of a fable that was included in tWoD or tGoZ. There is clearly a lot of lerology that appears in none of the three published novels. The biography from the RoVaCon program book appears at the end of this message. I thought he had come out with a sequel to @i<Waves>, though, with a title something like @i<Pressure Man>. I don't recall it as being very good, which would explain its being omitted from the bio. Dan Hoey ---------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Anthony Foster from Greensboro, North Carolina, is one of DAW Books' leading SF authors. His first book, @i<The Warriors of Dawn>, billed on the back cover as a ``fine new novel'' and ``the debut of a great SF talent,'' appeared in 1975. The cover was designed by our own Frank Kelly Freas [sponsor of the RoVaCon Art Scholarship]. The novel was the first in a trilogy about genetically created supermen and superwomen, one of whom teams up with a normal human male against interstellar pirates. The next book was @i<The Gameplayers of Zan>, published in 1977 (a prequel to @i<Warriors>), and the third book was @i<The Day of the Klesh>, 1979. Foster's next book was @i<Waves> (1980), and in 1981 DAW brought out @i<The Morphodite>. Its sequel, @i<The Transformer> [probable typo-- my copy omits the definite article], appeared in 1983. @i<Hallucina- tions>, four short novels under one cover (only one of which is previ- ously published) will appear in 1984. A work in progress is to be called @i<Candastara>, and will tentatively be out in 1985. M. A. Foster is a two-time nominee for the John Campbell Award for Best New Writer which is given annually by the World Science Fiction Conven- tion. He is a former data systems analyst and was an ICBM launch crew commander in the U. S. Air Force. Since 1978 he has been employed as a salesman of welding supplies and industrial/medical gasses, and he is as involved currently with metallurgy as he was formerly with electron- ics and signal propagation. He is a semi-professional photographer, a novice bass guitarist, and also an articulate panelist at conventions here and elsewhere. M. A. Foster has already made his mark among the cadre of science fiction novelists, and we are proud to have him on the RoVaCon Advisory Board.
bottom@katadn.DEC (12/12/84)
Thats LER not Ier! Read the books, very good. The game players of Zan stands with The mote in god's eye and books of the calibur. *db* just another maineiac SNOW? what snow? dec-rhea!dec-katadn!bottom