Margaret Edith Weis (; born March 16, 1948) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc., she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the Dragonlance role-playing game (RPG) world. She is founding CEO and owner of Sovereign Press, Inc and Margaret Weis Productions, licensing several popular television and movie franchises to make RPG series in addition to their own.
In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons, saying she and Hickman are "basically responsible for the entire gaming fiction genre". In 2002, she was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in part for Dragonlance.
Early life
Margaret Weis was born on March 16, 1948, in Independence, Missouri, where she was raised. She conscientiously avoided buying unauthorized publications of his work, and she related the wars in his fictional world to those in the real world of the 1960s.
She graduated from the University of Missouri in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and literature.
Career
Weis recalled, "Of course, my mother knew I was going to starve with such a worthless degree", so her mother got her a job as a proofreader at a small publishing company in neighboring Kansas City, Missouri. There, she ascended to editor, learned all about the book industry, and found an agentcrediting the job as an unusually good start for an author. She started writing for the low-paying juvenile book market by appealing to librarians with her high-quality, well-researched books.
TSR and Dragonlance
thumb|right|Margaret Weis (seated) with Tracy Hickman at [[Gen Con Indy 2008]]
In 1983, Weis applied for a job as a game editor at TSR, Inc. that she saw advertised in Publishers Weekly. TSR turned her down for that position, but hired her as a book editor. Jean Black, managing editor of TSR's book department, selected Weis and Hickman to write the series. She said, "To my mind, what made the project so successful was that everyone was involved in it, excited about it, and believed in it." TSR had doubts about the finished novel's sales potential, and attempted to order 30,000 copies before ordering the minimum print run of 50,000. The novel's success prompted TSR to publish more copies to meet demand. The novel was written after the completion of the first Dragonlance game modules. Weis and Hickman found this constraining and made the novel too episodic, so they reversed the process for the next books and completed the novels before the related modules were written.
Weis and Hickman also authored the Dragonlance Legends trilogy, published in 1986. Weis was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in 2002, recognized in part for "one game line turned literary sensation: Dragonlance".
Publishing companies
In addition to her writing career, Weis was the owner and chief officer of two publishing companies. She formed the company Sovereign Press, with herself as CEO, to publish the Sovereign Stone role-playing game written by her husband Don Perrin with Lester Smith. Between 2004 and 2008, Weis wrote a solo novel trilogy titled The Dark Disciple; the first novel, Amber and Ashes, was published in August 2004. During this period, Weis also co-authored with Hickman The Lost Chronicles trilogy starting with Dragons of the Dwarven Depths in July 2006. There was a fifteen-year hiatus between novels about the Companions before Dragons of the Dwarven Depths was released. After the original Chronicles novels were completed in 1991, the co-authors had a lot of material about them remaining, but moved on to writing about new characters. In 2004, Weis told Hickman she wanted to return to the main protagonists of the Dragonlance world. When the pair contacted their editors, they enthusiastically agreed.
In October 2020, Weis and Tracy Hickman filed suit against Wizards of the Coast for breaching a license for a new Dragonlance novel trilogy. Boing Boing reported that "according to the lawsuit, Weis and Hickman agreed with Wizards of the Coast to produce the new novels in 2017, capping off the series and giving fans a final sendoff. But the company pulled the plug in August 2020". The authors see the new trilogy as "the capstone to their life's work". In December 2020, Weis and Hickman filed to voluntarily dismiss without prejudice their lawsuit, and "the filing noted that Wizards of the Coast had not formally answered their lawsuit, nor had they filed for a summary judgement". Weis and Hickman's publishing agent affirmed a few weeks later that a new trilogy of Dragonlance novels was again in development. The first novel of the new series, Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit, was released on August 2, 2022.
Personal life
Weis met her future husband in high school, married after college, and had two children. The mentality of a professional writer strained those relationships. After publication of her first book and ten years of marriage, they divorced due to that stress and to different personalities. since Tolkien
In 1993, Weis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent successful chemotherapy.
In 1996, Weis married writer/game designer Don Perrin; the two later divorced.