Deborah J Miller

[desperance]

Via Charlie Stross at autopope: Debbie Miller has died. I used to see a lot of her in the early days of The Write Fantastic, before cancer started to curtail her involvement, but it was never enough; she was always a delight to be with, vivacious and smart and a wicked-sharp wit not dulled at all by her inherent kindness.

She was a protegee of David Gemmell's (though I always thought her far the better writer), and after his sudden death she flung herself into the project that would carry his name, the David Gemmell Legend Awards. Even after cancer pulled her back and back, she stayed at the heart of that for as long as she could. Sickness has a way sometimes of giving the rest of us the chance to see the pure gold some people are; Debbie was extraordinary, and I wish I'd found or made more chances to tell her so. (The last time I saw her in person, I said no to something, and disappointed her deeply: which is of course the kind of memory I could really live without right now.)

And now she's dead herself, too bloody soon. I loved her, and we've lost her, and fuck cancer.