A Blonde in Africa-an introduction
by Mike Resnick
Africa can cast a spell that makes Merlin look like an
amateur. It can grab you from half a world away, pull you to its
bosom, and as you spend your last night there prior to going home
you find that you miss it already. It has a way of simplifying
things, of making you realize what's really important to you; and
it can convince you that the very best part of yourself will
remain there, waiting for you to return and redeem it.
It can also drive you crazy, and break your heart again and
again.
It can show you beauties undreamed of, and horrors equally
unimagined. It is vibrant with life, both human and animal, yet no
continent presents such a constant and uncaring display of death.
It is also a place of inspiration. People who would never
have considered writing under other circumstances have taken years
out of their lives to put their African experiences down on paper.
And when a _real_ writer comes face to face with Africa, you
get such masterpieces as Ruark's _Horn of the Hunter_, Hemingway's
_The Green Hills of Africa_, Blixen's _Out of Africa_, Markham's
_West With the Night_, and Huxley's _The Flame Trees of Thika_.
Hunters get that urge, too, and have produced such memorable
volumes as Lake's _Killers in Africa_ and _Hunter's Choice_,
Jordan's _Elephants and Ivory_, Bell's _Karamojo Safari_, the
works of Selous and Boyes and Lyell and Stigand and Percival, and
many, many more.
It even affects writers of category fiction. I've written 9
science fiction novels and 22 short stories set in Africa. Other
science fiction writers such as George Alec Effinger, Robert
Silverberg, John Crowley, and Gregory Benford have recently set
stories there. Nor has it escaped the attention of mystery writers
such as M. M. Kaye, Elspeth Huxley, and Karin McQuillan, and
adventure writers from Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard
right up to Michael Crichton.
What you now hold in your hands is a book by an award-winning
romance and science fiction writer, who found Africa just as
fascinating as all those who went before her. I know her a little
better than those other writers who came under Africa's spell. I
ought to: I'm her father.
Laura Resnick has always been a traveler. She went to Sweden
when she was 16. She majored in French and minored in Italian at
Georgetown University, the better to make her way through the non-
English-speaking world. By the time she was 25 she had lived in
England, France, Sicily, and an Israeli _kibbutz_, and had visited
close to a dozen other countries.
