Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's The Godmother puts a new twist in contemporary fantasy with the assertion that fairy godmothers exist here-and-now and they have magical power that allow them to intervene in real-world problems. The story is grounded by being set in and around a social-services agency in Seattle and by making her central character sympathetic and realistic but the author still manages to have a lot of fun with idea. Rose Samson is neither fashion-model beautiful nor a twit and she happily joins forces with Felicity Fortune, a "Godmother" who demonstrates that the basic situations in Grimm's fairy tales are still relevant in our humdrum modern world. The two work with many people including a sweet and smart pair of Hansel and Gretel-like abandoned children named Hank and Gigi, a Snow White ("Sno") who is royal if you count her father's rock-star status and "Cindy," who is suing her stepmother for control of her trust fund. In all their encounters, Rose and Felicity try to blend their magical aid with realistic human initiative and social responsibility. Scarborough's fully-realized settings and the humor built into the mix of magical solutions and grim reality make this work an entertaining and compelling read.
Altogether I've written and collaborated on 38 novels, 22 solo and 16 in collaboration with the fabulous Anne McCaffrey.
Among my solo novels is THE HEALER'S WAR, the 1989 Nebula Award winner for best novel, loosely based on my experiences as a nurse in Vietnam.
I have also written a traditional, though humorous, 4-book fantasy series, SONGS FROM THE SEASHELL ARCHIVES, a feminist Arabian Nights fantasy, two fantasies set in the Wild West and the Yukon Goldrush respectively, my obligatory science fiction writer's apocalypse book and the sequel, both set in Tibet, and three books about folk music and magic that made a big hit with the Library of Congress Folk Music Archives, which I blew up in the first book. Three of my books are about fairy godmothers, one is about Christmas and computers, one features Sir Walter Scott in a Victorian gothic mystery set in Edinburgh, and two are about Queen Cleopatra as the living "Past life" of two different women.
Just last week I released for the first time anywhere, a new e-book (available soon as Print on Demand as well), SPAM VS THE VAMPIRE. Spam is a cat whose mistress disappears suddenly, leaving him and his 14 feline housemates alone and soon to starve. When someone breaks into the house, Spam takes the opportunity to escape into the outside world, where he's actually never been before, to hunt for his human, or at least some other human to feed and care for him and his friends until their friend Darcy comes back. The more he hunts, the more he becomes sure that she is not going to be coming back on her own.
