I just found out about this terrible event and it has me in tears. Author L.K. Madigan has passed away from pancreatic cancer, yesterday, Feb 23rd.
Lisa Wolfson was her real name, but she published her two YA novels under the alias of L.K. Madigan because she didn't want to scare off the male readers, which she considered "rare, elusive creatures". She was 47 years old.
Her first book, Flash Burnout, won the William C. Morris Award, a Northamerican honour given by the the American Library Association to the best book for young adults by a first-time author. Her second book, The Mermaid's Mirror was published last year.
In her last blog post she wrote:
I’ve been lucky for twenty years. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 27, and I didn’t expect to make it to 32. But I did, and once I passed that five-year mark … I started to think I was going to live. At age 34, I had my beautiful son. Two years ago, my dream of being a published author came true. And during these twenty years, my beloved has been by my side. We rode the marriage roller coaster together, sometimes laughing and sometimes screaming.
So lucky.
I’m not angry about the diagnosis. How can I feel angry when I had this gift of time? I’m not even afraid of dying. We all die, and I made my peace with that a long time ago.
I don't know what else to say, other than I'm shocked.
Lisa, you will be dearly missed by everyone who knew you and those of us who didn't, but still get to read your work. Through it, you'll live on.
We'll see you in your next life, which I'm sure will be just as thrilling and full of creativity as this one was.
2 monkey thought (s):
I'm so saddened by her death. Her blog post in January touched me....I read Flashburnout, and it was so awesome.
The line about all the stories she still had to tell is heartbreaking. I think we all think we have so much time to make our writing dreams come true, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.
I look forward to reading Mermaid's Mirror too.
This saddens me so much. Mermaid's Mirror is such a great novel. She will be missed.
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