From Publishers Weekly: Bestselling author Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, better known by her pen name Rachel Caine, who wrote the YA series The Morganville Vampires, and The Great Library, in addition to thriller and sci-fi titles for adults, died on November 1 following a battle with soft tissue sarcoma. She was 58… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Conrad was born Roxanne Longstreet on April 27, 1962 in White Sands, N.M. and grew up in West Texas. She first began writing fiction when she was a teenager and recalled those days in an interview for the Unbound Worlds website. “I remember two things: one was getting super frustrated with a TV show… and wanting the story to come out differently,” she said. “The other thing that happened was a teacher assigned us a classroom exercise, to write a story around a sentence prompt. ‘The clock struck twelve and everything changed.’ ” Conrad remembered crafting a tale of two gunfighter characters in an old Western town who ended up drawing wands in a wizard’s duel instead of pistols. From those experiences, she knew she had discovered a true passion.

Though Conrad continued to create stories at a steady clip, she did not believe her writing could turn into a career. She earned a B.A. in accounting from Texas Tech University in 1985, with a minor in music, and segued into the corporate world. In addition to accounting, Conrad worked in web and graphic design, corporate communications, and was a professional musician. She continued writing all the while and in 1990 published her first novel for adults, Stormriders, as Roxanne Longstreet. The following year, she met fantasy artist Cat Conrad when they both attended a convention known as Justice-Con in Dallas. The couple married, and in a moving post that Cat Conrad shared on social media, he noted that they were together for 29 years.

Read full obituary on https://www.publishersweekly.com/