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Carrie Vaughn: a Short, Poignant Biography...

Favorite Authors (you can tell so much from a person by this list): Ray Bradbury, Robin McKinley, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, John Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Sylvia Plath, Patricia McKillip, Connie Willis, Ursula LeGuin, Steven Brust, Phillip Pullman, Guy Gavriel Kay, Lois McMaster Bujold, Neal Stephenson, Jonathan Lethem, Arthur C. Clarke, Peter Beagle, Iain Banks, Steven Erikson, etc. etc.

The phrase "Air Force Brat" sums up most of my childhood. When I was born in January 1973, my father was co-piloting a B-52 all over southeast Asia and my mother was having her umpteenth nervous breakdown at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, California. That explains so much, doesn't it? Both of my parents must be credited with my current career path: my mother gave me Heinlein's Red Planet when I was eight. Shortly thereafter my father sat me down to watch 2001. My brain just hasn't been the same.


I was a high school valedictorian (tied with five others--it was that kind of high school) and received a BA from Occidental College in Los Angeles (I went there the same time as Ben Affleck, but I never met him, much to my anguish.) I lived in York, UK, for my junior year abroad (ask the Freaksoc crowd about the time I was the Goddess of the River Ouse). I've worked as a Renaissance Festival counter wench, a theater usher, an editor, a buyer at an independent bookstore, and as the ever-popular 'administrative assistant.' I went back to school. (University of Colorado at Boulder this time.) Once, I was the student. Now, I am the Master. ("Only a Master of English, Carrie.") Doh!

In 1998, I attended the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop, a six-week long summer workshop directed by Jeanne Cavelos.

I live in Boulder, Colorado, and I still have to do my own laundry.

When I was about six and my little brother Robbie was four, I threw a coffee can at him in the sandbox. Smacked him right on the head. I didn't mean to. He had to have stitches. Now that his hairline is receding, the scar is becoming visible. I knew I was never going to live that one down.