The High Fantasy Track welcomed Lynn Abbey, one of Dragon Con’s “Guests of Honor” in 1987, to the track room (Marriott L401-403) Saturday 11:30PM to look back at Thieves’ World, the fantasy anthology series Lynn co-created with Robert Asprin. Jody Lyne Nye, who contributed two short stories to the Thieves’ World franchise in the early 2000s moderated the panel, and Mel Todd, author and owner of Bad Ash Publishing joined in as well. Considered the progenitor of shared world anthologies, Thieves’ World was a revolutionary work that defined Abbey’s career and shaped the future of the publishing world.
Thieves’ World is an anthology series in which authors participate in a shared world. Set in Sanctuary, a gritty town with endless possibilities, authors created characters and contributed stories free from the burden of world building. The idea of a shared world anthology began over dinner at a convention in Boston and gave birth to the concept. “Thieves’ World is older than Dragon Con” Abbey declared. Most fantasy publications during this time were stand-alone pieces. There were a few series but in general every author had to create a world from scratch every time he started a new piece of work. “What would happen if we freed authors up from that?” Abbey asked. That then led to the idea of a “busman’s holiday.” What would characters populating this world do during their time off? Where would they go? Answering those questions resulted in the creation of the Vulgar Unicorn, the tavern that serves as a center point of the stories.
At first, there really wasn’t a fully developed “guide” to the world. Abbey provided basic information about the ruling prince, the gods, and a map but there was no history. “No one thought it was going to last…including us” she declared. As a result, they just didn’t invest in the development of a full back story.
What sold the work was the cover illustration. The first edition cover illustration takes the point of view of reader who has just walked into the “Vulgar Unicorn,” a tavern in the city of Sanctuary. The customers, along with the barkeep, have stopped their conversations to look at the person who has just entered. “I don’t know the official title of the work” Abbey declared, “but this piece is ‘you just walked into the wrong bar, sucker!’”
That first volume took off. One member brought his copy of the book and shared it with Abbey who noted that his copy was the 13th printing. “That’s unheard of” for an anthology to have that many printings. A year later a second volume appeared, Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, and with that, a decade long series was born. In fact, when Asprin and Abbey appeared at Dragon Con in 1987, the series was on volume 10!
Abbey joked about the challenges of pulling off a collaboration of this nature in the pre-internet age. “We used USPS” she proclaimed. “We thought it was a huge step in the late 1980s to use email!” Abbey took her place on the cover as co-editor with volume 5 precisely because managing the logistics of this enterprise required so much work. She had to negotiate schedules and submissions in order to meet strict deadlines. Ace published the series, and their calendar followed a standard pattern. Asprin and Abbey lined up authors for a volume and sent out a report on the project in February. By the 1st of March everyone had their instructions. The authors then wrote during the summer with a hard submission deadline in September. As late summer approached authors would jockey for position in the volume to determine who would be first and who would be last.
Tension over placement in the volume was only one of the challenges Abbey had to face. If you carefully read the stories, you’ll see that authors often projected their personal rivalries and conflicts into their characters. There was one rule that authors had to abide by: you can kill a god, but you cannot kill another creator’s character!” According to Abbey, everything after that first volume was an expression of a desire “for revenge!”
What really made the series viable was the development of a “Thieves’ World Master Agreement” worked out between Asprin, Abbey, and the publisher. The document, later used as model for similar types of work, clearly defined the marketing rules. It also specifically defined and maintained the author’s individual copyright of their work. These provisions, including the trademark of Thieves’ World were innovative and industry changing. Abbey is as proud of the work she did to protect the intellectual property rights of the authors as she is the stories themselves.
Asprin and Abbey’s divorce put the series on pause. A revival in the early 2000s then had to be paused due to several personal and family issues that required Abbey’s attention. When asked about another revival she used to declare: “when pig’s fly!” She stopped saying that because fans started sending her stuffed pigs with wings. Abbey is not opposed to the idea, but she sees her own limitations. She would need to work with someone she can fully trust and be forty years younger. A different time, a different generation, requires a different set of eyes.
Lynn Abbey has enjoyed a groundbreaking career that brought joy to millions of readers. The High Fantasy Track hit a “home run” bringing her back to Dragon Con.
