Mercedes Ritchie Lackey is an American writer of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar. Her Valdemar novels form a complex tapestry of interaction between human and non-human protagonists with many different cultures and social mores. Her other main world is one much like our own, but it includes clandestine populations of elves, mages, vampires, and other mythical beings. The Bedlam's Bard books describe a young man with the power to work incredible magics through music; the SERRAted Edge books are about racecar-driving elves; and the Diana Tregarde thrillers center on a Wiccan who combats evil. 

June 24th, 1950 in Chicago (Age 74)