Lucy Seaman
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Lucy Seaman |
| Alias(es): | Zarina Daeth (SCA) Michele Robbe (profic) |
| Type: | pro writer, fan writer, fan artist |
| Fandoms: | Historical re-enactment, Western (including Magnificent Seven), science fiction (including Star Trek) |
| Communities: | Dorsai Irregulars, SCA |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Lucy Seaman (1948-2014) was an American fan originally from Illinois.[1] She was an early member of the Dorsai Irregulars, joining soon after the group's founding in 1974,[2] and has been described as a "driving force" within the Society for Creative Anachronism.[1] In the SCA, she was known by the pseudonym Zarina Daeth, and was twice crowned Queen of the Midrealm (a region covering the Midwest), first in 1975 and again in 1978.[2][3] She has been remembered as "one of the first Midrealm Queens (if not its first)" to participate in re-enactment battles.[3] Seaman's fan art and fan fiction appeared in Western and sci-fi fanzines. Several of her art pieces won awards in the Mediawest art shows.
Seaman attended the very first Clarion Workshop in 1968.[4] Around this time, she did personal assistant work for Clarion instructor Harlan Ellison, who thanks her in the acknowledgements of his 1970 TV review collection The Glass Teat.[3][5] Ellison cited her as an example of an "ex-Clarionite" who had sold work professionally in a 1972 book.[6] He reported that she had recently "landed a script assigment" for Mission: Impossible with fellow Clarionite Sandy Rymer in the 1969 Worldcon program.[7]
From 1981 to 1991, Seaman worked on the ground crew for the Goodyear Blimp, the first woman to ever do so (she later described her "real career" as "aerial cable rigging").[1][4][8][9] During this time, to "escape an all-male work-day existence", she took up romance writing.[9] In 1985, drawing on her professional experiences, she published a profic romance novel about blimpers, Walking on Air, through Dell imprint Candlelight Ecstasy.[3][4][9][10][11] The book was reviewed by the romance novel blog The Smut Report in 2023.[12]
In the 1980s, Seaman also did visual-effects work under Robert Short, including on the 1982 film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.[8][13][14] She passed away on July 25, 2014, after a battle with cancer.[1][3][4][15] Per her wishes, her local SCA chapter, Rivenstar, bid her farewell with a Viking-style boat burning.[3]
Fanworks
- All or Nothing
- Deal With the Devil
- Western: Sunset Pride (1999)
- Western: One Day Out West (2000)
- Western: McQueen (2001)
- Science Fiction: Exodus (2002)
- Western: Trail to Tascosa (2002)
Gallery
cover of Once and For All
References
- ^ a b c d Obituary
- ^ a b Timeline of the Dorsai Irregulars
- ^ a b c d e f "Duchess Zarina's Final Voyage", The RivenSTAR, September/October 2014
- ^ a b c d Second obituary, published by Clarion West Alumni News
- ^ Harlan Ellison, The Glass Teat: Essays of Opinion on Television, page 10 (2014 Open Road reprint)
- ^ Harlan Ellison, introduction to "The Test-Tube Creature, Afterward" by Joan Bernott, in Again, Dangerous Visions: 46 Original Stories, page 441 (original 1972 edition)
- ^ Harlan Ellison, "School for Apprentice Sorcerors", St. Louiscon Program & Memory Book, page 75 (1969)
- ^ a b Southern Champaign Today, 1 November 1995, page 1
- ^ a b c "Authors", The Daily Breeze, 8 November 1992, page 40
- ^ "Walking on Air" on WorldCat
- ^ Mary June Kay, The Romantic Spirit: A Romance Bilbliography of Authors and Titles, page 130 (1986)
- ^ "Review: Walking on Air by Michele Robbe (1985)" from The Smut Report
- ^ Michael Kaplan, "E.T. and Me", Cinefantisque Magazine, September/October 1982, page 53
- ^ "Turn on Your Heartlight," Cinefex, January 1983, page 17
- ^ YouTube tribute
