Teresa Edgerton (born 1949) is an author of fantasy novels and short stories set in worlds that parallel the Middle Ages and the 18th century.

Literary biography

Born Teresa Ann Waller in

Van Nuys, California Van Nuys ( ) is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Van Nuys City Hall, Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley ...

, in 1949, she lived in the Los Angeles area until the age of 14, when her family moved to

northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

. In high school, she spent her lunch hours in the school library, devouring one historical novel after another. At about that same time she discovered fantasy writers T. H. White,

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

and

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

, and science fiction writer

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen na ...

, whose combined influence would inspire her to begin creating imaginary worlds of her own. She met her husband, John Edgerton, in 1971, when she was working as a Tarot reader at a local

Renaissance faire A Renaissance Festival (medieval fair or ren faire) is an outdoor gathering that aims to entertain its guests by recreating a historical setting, most often the English Renaissance. Renaissance festivals generally include costumed entertainers ...

, and he was part of a

Society for Creative Anachronism The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century. A quip often used within the SCA describes ...

troupe putting on demonstrations of medieval tourney combat. They have four children. She and her husband live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her interest in medieval society,

alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, magic, and

Celtic mythology Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples.Cunliffe, Barry, (1997) ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford, Oxford University Press , pp. 183 (religion), 202, 204–8. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed ...

led her to begin writing the Green Lion Trilogy. The first book of the series, ''Child of Saturn'', was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award. It is set in Celydonn, a fictional Celtic realm. After completing this trilogy, her interest turned from epic fantasy to the pseudo-sciences of the 18th century, which resulted in the

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and Applied arts, aesthetics inspired by, but not limited to, 19th-century Industrial Revolution, industrial steam engine, steam-powered machinery. Steampun ...

ish fantasy of manners ''Goblin Moon''. Other books and short stories followed. However, publication of ''The Queen's Necklace'' didn't produce enough sales to satisfy her publishers, and for a time she was unable to renew her publishing contract. In 2004 she was offered the chance to relaunch under the pseudonym Madeline Howard, and has since started a new trilogy, ''Rune of the Unmaking'', with the first novel, ''The Hidden Stars''.

Published works

Novels

''The Queen's Necklace'' (2001)

Celydonn

=The Green Lion trilogy (the first Celydonn trilogy)

= #''Child of Saturn'' (1989) #''The Moon in Hiding'' (1989) #''The Work of the Sun'' (1990)

=Second Celydonn trilogy

= #''The Castle of the Silver Wheel'' (1993) #''The Grail and the Ring'' (1994) #''The Moon and the Thorn'' (1995)

Mask and Dagger duology

#''Goblin Moon'' (1991) #''The Gnome's Engine'' (1991)

The Rune of Unmaking series (writing as Madeline Howard)

#''The Hidden Stars'' (2004) #''A Dark Sacrifice'' (2007)

Short stories

*"The Ghost in the Chimney" (1991) *"Titania, or The Celestial Bed" (1994) *"My Soul into the Boughs" (1995) *"A Wreath of Pale Flowers for Vitri" (1996) *"Tower of Brass" (1997) *"Rogue's Moon" (1997) *"Dying by Inches" (2001) *"Captured in Silver" (2004)

External links

Official Teresa Edgerton forum
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edgerton, Teresa 1949 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women short story writers American women novelists People from Van Nuys, Los Angeles American women science fiction and fantasy writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers