I have a lot of the early Sword & Sorceress anthologies edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley and if I recall correctly, there were short stories about Frostflower and Thorn included in them. I'm not sure at one point in the timeline they took place (I don't seem to recall a child) or if those short stories later gave rise to the novel or if those short stories were later incorporated into the novels (as Mercedes Lackey did with her Tarma & Kethry characters into her Valdemar books and Jennifer Roberson did with Keeley into her Shapechanger books). I read those anthologies a lot when I was younger so it might be interesting to look at them again.
(I do think the S&S anthologies might be past their prime at this point. Back when they first came out -- early 80s -- they were pretty revolutionary. But to keep the conversation alive, the stories of swordswomen & sorceresses would need to keep evolving past the rape & revenge tropes and oversexualized structural systems that characterized the fantasy stories of yesteryear. I'm not sure we're seeing that in that particular anthology series anymore, especially if the purpose of the line is to be revolutionary and innovative when it comes to female characters in fantasy fiction.)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-10-07 11:02 am (UTC)(I do think the S&S anthologies might be past their prime at this point. Back when they first came out -- early 80s -- they were pretty revolutionary. But to keep the conversation alive, the stories of swordswomen & sorceresses would need to keep evolving past the rape & revenge tropes and oversexualized structural systems that characterized the fantasy stories of yesteryear. I'm not sure we're seeing that in that particular anthology series anymore, especially if the purpose of the line is to be revolutionary and innovative when it comes to female characters in fantasy fiction.)