Jean Lorrah

Jean Lorrah is an amazing author whose life reads a little like an adventure novel. She is part Indiana Jones - a Professor who imparts knowledge to others while at the same time practicing her art. She is part Gulliver - travelling the word and bringing back fantastic stories. Jean is also part Doctor Dolittle - a lover of animals and people - combining the two by using cats as therapy animals, helping both the people and the animals with love and affection.

The number of books, articles, essays, short stories, magazine articles and screen plays she has written is staggering (see below). One has to wonder how she has found the time she has to study, obtain her PhD, teach as well as keeping time aside for outside interests! It is always said "If you want something done, give it to a busy person". Probably we should add to her abilities "professional time manager"!

While being involved in many series of books, including some children's books, this site is concentrating on Sime~Gen. Jean has been involved with Sime~Gen almost since the beginning. There is a legend about how she became involved - it goes like this…

After Jacqueline Lichtenberg wrote "House of Zeor" in 1974, Jean Lorrah wrote to her with a rather - shall we say "complete" - review of the book. Jacqueline, who always encourages people to have their say, apparently said "Why don't you write a Sime~Gen book?" Jean responded by doing so! "First Channel" was published in 1980 and they have been collaborating ever since.

Jean has also written books in her own universe "Savage Empire" and has collaborated with other authors on many projects.

Fiction Series

Nessie

• 1 Nessie and the Living Stone (2002) with Lois June Wickstrom
• 2 Nessie and the Viking Gold (2003) with Lois June Wickstrom
• 3 Nessie and the Celtic Maze (2009) with Lois June Wickstrom

Sime/Gen

• 1 First Channel (1980) with Jacqueline Lichtenberg
• 2 Channel's Destiny (1982) with Jacqueline Lichtenberg
• 3 Ambrov Keon (1986)
• 5 Zelerod's Doom (1986) with Jacqueline Lichtenberg
• 10 The Story Untold and Other Sime~Gen Stories (2011) [C]
• 11 To Kiss or To Kill (2011)
• Sime Gen: The Unity Trilogy (2003) [O/3,5,6] with Jacqueline Lichtenberg
• Personal Recognizance / The Story Untold and Other Sime~Gen Stories (2011) [O/9,10] with Jacqueline Lichtenberg
• Sime Gen: To Kiss or to Kill (2011) [A] with Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Star Trek Universe

• 1 Star Trek: The Original Series
• The Vulcan Academy Murders (1984)
• The IDIC Epidemic (1988) also appeared as:
• Variant Title: The I.D.I.C. Epidemic (1988)
• Star Trek (1989) [O] with Janet Kagan and Greg Bear and Diane Carey
• Star Trek (1991) [O] with Howard Weinstein and Vonda N. McIntyre and A. C. Crispin
• 3 Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Metamorphosis (1990)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Numbered
• 4 Survivors (1989)

The Savage Empire

• 1 Savage Empire (1981)
• 2 Dragon Lord of the Savage Empire (1982)
• 3 Captives of the Savage Empire (1984)
• 4 Flight to the Savage Empire (1986) with Winston A. Howlett
• 5 Sorcerers of the Frozen Isles (1986)
• 6 Wulfston's Odyssey (1987) with Winston A. Howlett
• 7 Empress Unborn (1988)
• Savage Empire: Dark Moon Rising (2004) [O/1,2,3]
• Savage Empire: Prophecies (2004) [O/4,5] with Winston A. Howlett

Novels

• Blood Will Tell (2003)

Collections

• Jean Lorrah Collected (2007) with Lois June Wickstrom
• Order of the Virgin Mothers and Other Plays (2010) with Lois June Wickstrom Magazine Editor Series
• Pandora Magazine
• Pandora - 1985 (1985) with Lois June Wickstrom [only as by Jean Lorrah and Lois Wickstrom ] Anthologies
• Vampire's Dilemma (2012) with Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Short Fiction Series

• Darkover
• Darkover Shortfiction
• Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover
• The Answer (1980) with Jacqueline Lichtenberg Shortfiction
• Pay the Piper (1981)
• Witch Fulfillment (1982)
• The Beholder (1994)
• Change of Command (2001)
• Short Quarter (2001)
• Sympathetic Magic (2007)
• The Rooster Under the Table: A Folktale Retold (2007) with Lois June Wickstrom
• Nessie and the Terrible Troll (2010) with Lois June Wickstrom
• Best of Fools (2011)
• Reflection of a Dream (2011)
• The Story Untold (2011)

Essays

• Foreword (The Vulcan Academy Murders) (1984)
• The Shamanistic Vision in Fantastic Poetry (1985)
• Foreword (The IDIC Epidemic) (1988)
• Foreword (Survivors) (1989)
• Foreword (Metamorphosis) (1990)
• Foreword (Blood Will Tell) (2007)
• Foreword (Jean Lorrah Collected) (2007)
• Chronology of the Sime~Gen Universe (2011) with Jacqueline Lichtenberg
• Editor's Introduction (Science Is Magic Spelled Backwards and Other Stories) (2011)
• Preface (Savage Empire) (2011)

Jean's amazon books

Jean's Twitter "Tips on writing"

What Sime Gen
Means to Me

by Eliza Leahy

When I was 28 I was in a motorcycle accident that left me in traction for three months. After that I had to move away from my family to a small town so I could retrain at the college there as I was no longer able to do the, very active, job that I use to do.

Other than study, there was nothing to do in that town at all. Everything shut at midday on Saturday and stayed shut until Monday. However, I was very lucky to have picked that town for college as it had Queenlands largest second hand book store!

By this time the Sime~Gen books were out of print. I found a copy of "Unto Zeor Forever" and bought it. I think it was the word "Zeor" that caught my attention, and the cover art was interesting and at the same time it evoked an emotion response, and I wanted to know why the guy had tentacles on his arms.

Reading about Digen's problems gave me an odd feeling - I wanted to help him. I realised that, in the Sime~Gen universe, I was a Companion. It made me realise other things about me "real" life as well. My husband at the time basically ignored me, I was lonely most of the time. When I went home after college I worked to put my husband through university doing IT. When he was finished we broke up, and I moved away from my beloved farm and horses and to the major city, Brisbane.

In the mean time I had found "House of Zeor" and "Mahogany Trinrose". It drove me crazy that I could not find the other books!

The internet was new at that time. I had a job doing websites, as the IT people realised that they needed artists and designers to make their pages look "pretty" rather then just code. I searched "Sime Gen" regularly with no results.

Then one day - A RESULT!!! Someone had put up a forum for Sime~Gen and I think I cried for hours. I was no longer alone.

Chatting with the group on the forum not only showed me that Sime~Gen actually had a huge following, even some in Australia, but the AUTHORS were there! I could talk to them as well! I had never imagined such a wonderful thing.

And there was another lady in Brisbane! Like me, she had "Identified" as soon as she had read the books, and she identified as a Farris Channel. So much so that she had changed her last name to "Farris". We met - and realised that we had a lot in common - all of it Sime~Gen. Our whole lives happened in the "real" world, we weren't delusional, but we saw everything through "Sime~Gen coloured glasses". We started to spend more and more time together, and when I had to move we decided we may as well share a place. (She also had all the other books, so I finally got to read them!) That was in 1998, and we have been sharing our lives ever since.

Thank you Jean and Jacqueline. You may not have realised that you possibly saved my life, and you also gave me a "matchmate". Anything I can do for you will never be enough.