Rosemary Edghill

Rosemary Edghill (born 1956) is an American writer and editor. Some of her work has appeared under her original name, eluki bes shahar (lower case intentional). Her primary genres are science fiction and fantasy, but she began by writing Regency romance novels.

The publishers of her first novel felt that "Eluki Bes Shahar" (her legal name at the time) sounded insufficiently English to attract readers, so she adopted the pen-name Rosemary Edghill, which became her legal name in 2004. Her sister, a reference librarian, writes as India Edghill.

She cites some of her influences:

"Too many to count. Damon Runyon and Mark Twain, for use of language. C. L. Moore and Eric Frank Russell, ditto. For storybuilding and sheer artfulness, John Le Carre. For language (again!) Margaret Atwood. For a great story, which is the First Thing in my book, John D. MacDonald, Peter O'Donnell, Ian Fleming, Leslie Charteris, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett (and we're back to the language thing again). Kipling. Poe. Clark Ashton Smith. Robert E. Howard. Robert A. Heinlein. Lovecraft. For that matter, I think I owe as much to the great editors of SF's silver age as to the writers, so here's to you: John W. Campbell, Groff Conklin, and Damon Knight."

Edghill has collaborated in writing fiction with Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, and the late Marion Zimmer Bradley. Her books with Andre Norton include Shadow of Albion and Leopard in Exile. Her books with Mercedes Lackey include Spirits White as Lightning and Mad Maudlin. Both of the latter titles refer to Tom o'Bedlam.

Edghill lives in upstate New York with cats and King Charles Spaniels. She trains and shows her dogs in obedience competitions.