Malazan Empire: Ailesbury - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Smashing Pumpkins -- Gish. It has a psychedelic fantasy element with a touch of dream pop and shoegaze. Nods to fantasy would be appreciated.

I am a fan of tennis star Naomi Osaka and saw her on television just win her 4th Grand Slam. Just as tragedy strikes the golf world with Tiger Woods and his car crash, perhaps there is a new sports sensation who could change the tennis world.

Back in the 80s and 90s, Greg Bear was a respected science fiction genre writer. People such as literary writer Doris Lessing named him as an influence. However, after he started writing for Star Wars and Halo, I now find that some people don't respect him anymore. I mentioned Greg Bear to a college professor and she knew him as that Star Wars writer and didn't know about all the previous work he had done in serious genre fiction. There is a similar situation with James Blish. In the 50s and 60s, Blish received major genre acclaim but then he started writing for Star Trek because it paid well. The whole "sell out" moniker comes to mind.

The situation is not the same for all writers because some like Brandon Sanderson take on a big franchise and become catapulted to greater fame and respect. R.A. Salvatore, another fantasy writer, really built his reputation and name from a franchise. Why is the situation different for fantasy? JK Rowling is another example of a fantasy writer who built her reputation on a franchise.

Nevertheless, science fiction writer Greg Bear was the lynchpin who got me thinking in these terms. I really enjoyed his trilogy called The Way but then later saw him take on a Star Wars book.

I hope I don't step on too many toes with this topic.

I have read that Steven Erikson went to the Iowa Writer's Workshop (MFA degree?), but where did he get his undergraduate degree from? Was it somewhere in Canada? Toronto or Ontario?

Also, I have read that Erikson did work as an anthropologist and archaeologist, but what specifically did he do in this early career before he became a professional writer?

I uploaded a new profile pic and it showed up as the currently used pic. However, when I go back to my profile, the old profile pic is still there. I tried to clear my cache and give it 24 hours to cycle through but my old profile pic is still there.