This was the first story I published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction—the realization of a life-long dream. “The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant” was nominated for a Nebula Award and is probably my best known story. Gordon Van Gelder, in his concise editorial style, made two pinpoint suggestions that cut directly to the heart of the matter. Incorporating them made all the difference.

The story is about Fantasy and genre and literature and writing, but for me it is most importantly about two individuals and their relationship, how they help each other. Both the characters of Ashmolean and the narrator, Mary, are in some ways autobiographical and in more ways not. Why is it written in the voice of a young woman? I don’t know, it’s just the way I saw it, as Ashmolean might say. I think it is important to keep in mind that at the end, Mary does not adopt the older writer’s style, but writes her own story in her own way.

Glandar’s phrase, “One must retain a zest for the battle,” comes directly from my father and is part of his personal philosophy of life.

This story has always been for Bill Watkins, author of “The Beggar in the Livingroom,” Centrifugal Rickshaw Dancer, Cosmic Thunder, Going to See the End of the Sky, and The Last Deathship Off Antares, who gave me great encouragement and insight into the writing of Speculative Fiction.