Lisanne Norman
In her own words:
"By profession, I trained as a teacher so I'm interested in
everything. Learning is an on-going experience for me. My writing
has taken me down many an interesting thoroughfare and alley of
research. My main interests are in paleontology, ancient
civilizations, particularly the Minoans and Ancient Egyptians, and
the history of the Old testament times, which I studied at college.
At college, when we did a survey on our leisure time, I was
accused of cheating. The tutor concluded I was one of the few
lucky, or unlucky ones, depending on your view point, for whom
my work was leisure! : )
I used to read a minimum of 8 books a week plus do my day job. Now I read when I can, but it's so
easy now to be influenced while I'm writing that I don't read nearly as much as before. It's mostly SF I
read.Genetics, the workings of the human mind, how memories are stored and accessed, how religions
evolve to fulfill the needs of the community to which they belong, and of course, the care,
developmental stages and behaviour of Cats, both large and small are just some of the on-going
interests I study in writing my current series for DAW Books.
TV. I have to ration viewing time or I'd never write, so I choose carefully what I watch. I adored the
series Gargoyles but sadly it was made into Popular TV, bombed, predictably, and was axed. I'm
waiting patiently for the new series of X-Files and Millenium to start.
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Again, I'm waiting for the new series. But we have a new Xena, and
Earth, Final Conflict, and some news ones that look interesting. Mercy Hospital - ER in space my
son says! And First Wave - a more intelligent approach than Dark Skies, I think. We'll see.
And Films. I love action films. Arnie films, Jean Claude van Damme, Steven Segal, but the two
favourites nowadays have to be Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. Always in good movies.
My Games have changed. I was utterly entranced and WOWed by UNREAL. It was just that,
Unreal! And being able to switch on God Mode and go for a walk around the levels - like exploring an
alien world it was so real. My only criticism was they suddenly made the bad guys too powerful, and
as for the Titans! Well, I knew I'd never have the time to finish it if I didn't use God mode, I kept
getting killed so often! I did discover the choice of skin helps a lot. It wasn't me who was dreadful
getting my character to jump on boxes, it was the skin who didn't have much in the way of jumping
skills. I found that out when I changed him for another male.
It has an Editor to make your own levels. It would be wonderful to do some for my own spaceships
and buildings for the Sholans, but once again, there aren't enough hours in the day. Getting round to
updating this is difficult enough.
I deathmatch QUAKE 2 now and then with my son, and he's challenged me to a deathmatch for
MechWarrior2, which he gave me for Christmas, bless him! It was a game I'd wanted for a long time.
However, until I can stop lurching around drunkenly in my Mech and stop wanting to stand still and
shoot it out with enemy Mechs, I've refused. Hey, I got no chance against him on the maoueverability
stakes!!
I'm also a Dark Age Re-enactor and have been for 20 years. I'm a Jarl, a leader of a small group, but I
don't fight these days as a birth spinal problem has left me less mobile than I once was. I was pretty
good in my time with my double-handed Magyar style curved sword. Archery is my thing, though. I
fought as an archer using rubber blunt tipped combat arrows. I also ran a a display team which depicts
the history of archery and shows what damage the different types of arrow heads could do. I have a
really neat little recreated wooden laminated recurve bow of the type used by the Russ in the 10th
Century. I also did a year going round English Heritage sites as a 1st century Celtic archer with a small
display unit of Roman soldiers from the legion of the XIVth Geminii. We had the only mounted
legionnaire in Europe at the time.
The Society I belong to is called The Vikings, N.F.P.S. and is the largest in the UK. I have run a local
group for the last 8 years, called Norvik Hrafnswyrd, and, as I said, been a member for 20 years. The
Society has a strong Living History membership as well as Warriors. I have to admit I joined because I
enjoyed the skills involved in learning to use a metal sword, spear, Dane axe and quarterstaff. And
archery, of course!"
Books:
Sholan Alliance:
Turning Point
Fortune's Wheel
Fire Margins
Razor's Edge
Dark Nadir
Stronghold Rising
Between Darkness and Light
Author's Homepage:
http://www.sff.net/people/Lisanne/
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