Our Appendix N Archeology and Adventures in Fiction series are meant to take a look at the writers and creators behind the genre(s) that helped to forge not only our favorite hobby but our lives. We invite you to explore the entirety of the series on our Adventures In Fiction home page.Adventures in Fiction: Leigh Brackettby Michael CurtisThe sad truth is that Appendix N is overwhelmingly a boys’ club. Much of the blame can be assigned to the fact that science-fiction and fantasy writers prior to 1960s were by and large white men. It was a tough club for a woman to break into, resulting in many female authors with an interest in writing science-fiction and fantasy working under either pen names (such as Andre Norton) or their initials (like C.L. Moore). A few managed to find success and publication without obscuring their femininity, proving that gender is meaningless when it comes to writing rollicking good sci-fi and fantasy. Leigh Brackett was one of these women who earned her place in the club without needing to hide her identity.The future “Queen of the Space Opera” was born on December 7th, 1915 in Los Angeles, CA. By her mid-twenties, Brackett had her first science-fiction stories published in John W. Campbell’s magazine, Astounding Science Fiction. She would bang out a number of science fiction stories for both Astounding Science Fiction and Planet Stories magazines, often exploring social issues against a backdrop of interstellar adventures.In 1944, Bracket ventured outside the boundaries of sci-fi into the realm of the crime novel when she wrote the Raymond Chandler-inspired book No Good from a Corpse. Her experience writing hard-boiled crime spilled over into her science fiction work, and her later stories in that genre featured rougher, more noir-inspired characterizations.Chiefly among these rougher heroes was Brackett’s most famous protagonist, Eric John Stark. Stark appeared for the first time in the short story “Queen of the Martian Catacombs,” later expanded into the full novel The Secret of Sinharat. Stark is a Burroughsian character: his parents were miners on Mercury when they were murdered by a violent tribe of aliens. The orphaned boy was discovered and raised by a friendlier tribe, learning the savage ways of primitive Mercury until he was found by a fellow Earthling and returned to civilization. Eric John Stark then embarks upon a career of adventure that takes him...