Parke Godwin (1929-2013)
Author Parke Godwin, 84, died on June 19, 2013 in Auburn CA. Godwin’s novella “The Fire When it Comes” (1981) was nominated for both Hugo and Nebula Awards and won a World Fantasy Award.
Some of Godwin’s stories were collected in World Fantasy Award finalist The Fire When it Comes (1984). Story “Influencing the Hell Out of Time and Teresa Golowitz” (1982) was adapted as an episode of The Twilight Zone TV series in 1985. On his own Godwin wrote the Snake Oil Wars series: Waiting for the Galactic Bus (1988) and The Snake Oil Wars, or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again (1989); the Firelord sequence: World Fantasy Award nominee Firelord (1980) and Beloved Exile (1984); and two books re-imagining the Robin Hood legend: Sherwood (1991) and Robin and the King (1993).
He also wrote numerous standalone novels, beginning with debut Darker Places (1973) and including The Last Rainbow (1985). His last two novels were written under the name Kate Hawks: The Lovers: The Legend of Trystan & Yseult (1999) and Watch By Moonlight (2001).
With Marvin Kaye he wrote the Masters of Solitude sequence: Masters of Solitude (1978) and Wintermind (1982). He also wrote A Cold Blue Light (1983) with Kaye.
Harold Parke Godwin was born January 28, 1929 in New York. He served in the Army during the Korean war, and after leaving the service worked as a touring actor. He was guest of honor at the 2011 World Fantasy Convention. In 2012, he entered a care facility after suffering declines in both short- and long-term memory.
His literary executor, Connor Cochran, says Godwin completed three more novels which will be released posthumously, along with a comprehensive story collection.
For more, see his entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. See the August issue of Locus for a complete obituary.