Lyn McConchie

Lyn McConchie (born 1946) is a New Zealand writer of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction), picture books for children, a nonfiction humour series, a number of standalone books and many short stories, articles, poems, opinion pieces, and reviews.
Biography.
McConchie was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and attended Freyberg High School in Roslyn. She was crippled in a motorcycle accident in 1977. McConchie has worked in the Justice Department and the Office of Agriculture and Fisheries in Wellington before she began writing professionally in 1990. Since that time she has sold on average one book every eight months. Her first book to appear was "Farming Daze", containing humorous true-life stories about her farm and animals. That first book is still in print, with six more since published in that series. In addition to three Vogel Award-winning collaborations, McConchie wrote three sequels in the "Beast Master" series that Andre Norton inaugurated in 1959 and four novels in the Witch World universe that Norton created in 1963. McConchie's work has appeared in nine countries to date, and in four languages. Her list of published books stands at 43; she has also published novellas; and her short story list recently passed 300. McConchie also writes consumer/recycling articles for her local newspaper, and speciality articles for magazines in New Zealand and the UK. She has written under the pseudonyms of Jan Bishop and Elizabeth Underwood. She writes from her home, Farside Farm, on the north island of New Zealand.
Awards.
McConchie has won the Best Novel category in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for New Zealand science fiction and fantasy six times, including three for novels set in Andre Norton's worlds (by Norton and McConchie): in 2003, 2005, and 2006 for "Beastmaster's Ark", "Beastmaster's Circus", and "The Duke's Ballad". At the 2011 Vogels, McConchie won both the Best Novel category with "The Questing Road" and the Best Young Adult Novel category with "Summer of Dreaming". In 2013 she won Best Novel again for her collaborated book 'Queen of Iron Years (with Sharman Horwood) Lyn's SF novel, Vestiges of Flames, was a Sir Julius Vogel award nominee in 2016. Most recently her Ancient Egypt alternate history fantasy, Bastet's Daughters, received the International Cat Writers Assn. Certificate of Excellence in March 2018.
She also won an award for editing in the Vogels' former incarnation as the New Zealand science fiction fan awards in 1990. Her short stories have won The Australian SF Foundation award (for The Third Storey) in 1992, and Muse Medallions (Best Short Story) from the international Cat Writers Association in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2002. In 2011 her short story, Opener of Doors won a 6th Certificate of Excellence and Muse Medallion. Her short story, Waiting Tables and Time, was a finalist in the Sir Julius Vogel awards (Best Short Story) in 2009, and a Gaylactic Awards shortlister for 2011. In October 2012 her short story, The Domen, ("Penumbra" eZine May issue) won the international Cat Writers' Association (CWA) Certificate of Excellence, and continued on to win their 2012 Muse Medallion for this work.