Lynda Williams is the author of the Okal Rel Saga published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy of Calgary. She is also editor of the ORU Legacy Series featuring anthologies and novellas set in her universe.

The first book in her 10-novel space opera saga about a race of bioengineered super-pilots called Sevolites is Part 1: The Courtesan Prince (2005). This "intelligent soap opera" series explores culture clash and its social consequences in a universe with more fire-power than people dare to employ in old fashion, all-out wars.

Williams manages web delivery of two distance programs in her role as Instructional Designer for the School of Nursing at the University of Northern B.C. She taught applied computing for 20 years, the last ten at UNBC where she developed a course in computing science and earned three awards for her pioneering work in applied computing for social and educational purposes while working as Project Leader for the Centre for Teaching and Learning. She also founded the PG FreeNet in the 1990s and has worked as a journalist, crisis counselor and librarian. She is married to David Lott with three daughters. She holds two masters degrees: an M.L.S. from the University of Toronto and an M.Sc. Computation from McMaster. So by day Lynda Williams is a librarian and educational technologist at the University of Northern B.C. By night she explores gender rules in a futuristic fantasy universe dependent on bio-engineering.

The first of her planned ten-novel Okal Rel Universe series, The Courtesan Prince (2005) introduced two distinct and ideologically opposed planetary societies, colonizing space by cloning. With their connections with earth severed long ago, and with 200 years having passed since the Killing Reach War, conflict was imminent between the high-tech, egalitarian Reetions and neo-feudal and barbaric Gelacks. In spite of such tensions, two colonists from each empire struggled to overcome their cultural differences and ancient hatreds.

In book two, Righteous Anger (Calgary: Edge, $22.95), Williams continued to explore the two warring cultures, one which is socially transparent and regulated by the computer, the other which is genetically enhanced, highly religious and regulated by the Okal Rel Sword law. Righteous Anger focuses on the fortunes, awkward fate and fighting skills of Horth Nersal, a half-breed who was conceived as the result of a treaty marriage to bring peace between two warring factions.

In book three, Pretenders (Calgary: Edge, $20.95), Ev'rel comes out of exile to claim the throne of Sevildom, pretending to be a frail female. Her beautiful, battered son Armel is also an unwilling contender for the throne. Political agendae are enmeshed with sexual agendae. Love is horribly inconvenient.

Williams claims her predilection for SF naturally. That is, her father read her epic poetry before she could read, her mother's grandfather was a Welsh bard who wrote a book of sermons and her maternal great-great-grandfather was supposedly cuckholded by a King of England (while he was attending a royal birth in his capacity as a physician).

"In short, it was plain to me from an early age that stories were the stuff of life,"; she says, "and I was heir to them.";

Williams has an additional series of works set in the same universe, planned with WindStorm Creative of Washington state. One Okal Rel Universe story has appeared twice in Circlet Press anthologies, once in Erotic Fantastic, The Best of Circlet Press 1992-2002.

Her first novel Throne Price was a finalist for both the ForeWord magazine Book of the Year Award and the Benjamin Franklin Popular Fiction Award.

CITY/TOWN: Prince George, B.C.

DATE OF BIRTH: Feb 17, 1958

PLACE OF BIRTH: Prince George, B.C.

ANCESTRAL BACKGROUND: Welsh

EMPLOYMENT OTHER THAN WRITING: Applied technologist / Computer Science instructor

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Throne Price (Calgary: Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2003) -- with Alison Sinclair. Part Four. ISBN: 1-894063-06-6
The Courtesan Prince: Part One of the Okal Rel Saga (Edge, 2005). ISBN: 1-894063-28-7
Righteous Anger (Edge, 2006. Part Two. ISBN-10: 1-894063-38-4 ISBN-13: 978-1-894063-38-8
Pretenders (Calgary: Edge, 2008). Part Three. ISBN-13: 978-1-894063-13-5 ISBN-10: 1-894063-13-9
Far Arena (Calgary: Edge, 2009). Part Five. $19.95 9781894063456
Avim's Oath (Edge 2010) Part Six. $19.95 9781894063357
Healer's Sword (Edge 2012) Part Seven. $19.95 9781896063517
Gathering Storm (Edge 2012) Part Eight. $19.95 9781770530201
Holy War (Edge 2013) Part Nine. $19.95 9781770530324

The following are print-on-demand titles from Edge in the ORU Legacies Series

• The Encyclopedic Guide to the ORU, by Lynda Williams and Justyn Perry. Okal Rel Legacies series. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog February 19, 2009 . (Originally published as the Guide to the Okal Rel Universe, by Windstorm Creative in 2006.)
• Horth in Killing Reach by Craig H. Bowlsby. Okal Rel Legacies series. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog November 30, 2008.
• Kath by Lynda Williams. Okal Rel Legacies series. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog Nov 30, 2008. (Originally published by Windstorm Creative in 2004).
• The Lorel Experiment by Lynda Williams. Okal Rel Legacies series. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog Nov 30, 2008. (Originally published by Windstorm Creative 2006).
• Mekan'stan by Lynda Williams. Okal Rel Legacies series. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog Nov 30, 2008. (Originally published by Windstorm Creative in 2004).
• First: An Okal Rel Universe Legacy Anthology edited by Lynda Williams and Virginia O'Dine. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog April 1, 2009. (Originally published as The Okal Rel Universe Anthology 1, by Windstorm Creative in 2005.)
• Second: An Okal Rel Universe Legacy Anthology edited by Lynda Williams and John Preet. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog (Originally published as The Okal Rel Universe Anthology 2, by Windstorm Creative in 2007.)
• Third: An Okal Rel Universe Legacy Anthology edited by Lynda Williams and Jennifer Sparling. Absolute XPress: Calgary, AB. Added to catalog April 30, 2009.

[BCBW 2009] "Fiction" "SF"