Holder, Nancy L. 1953–

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Holder, Nancy L. 1953–

(Laurel Chandler, Wendi Davis, Nancy L. Jones)

PERSONAL: Born August 29, 1953, in Los Altos, CA; daughter of a U.S. Navy psychiatrist and an educator; married Wayne Holder, December 27, 1980 (divorced); children: Belle. Education: University of California, San Diego, B.A. (summa cum laude).

ADDRESSES: Home—San Diego, CA. Agent—Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, LLC, 30 Pierrepont St., Brooklyn, New York, NY 11201. E-mail—nancy@nancyholder.com.

CAREER: Educator, editorial consultant, and author.

MEMBER: International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, Romance Writers of America, Horror Writers Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best Rapture Romance award, 1984 and 1985; Best Horror Fiction award, San Diego Writers and Editors Guild, 1985; Bram Stoker Award, Horror Writers Association, 1992, for short story "Lady Madonna," 1994, for short story "I Hear the Mermaids Singing," 1995, for short story "Cafe Endless: Spring Rain," and 1995, for Dead in the Water.

WRITINGS:

ROMANCE NOVELS

(Under pseudonym Wendi Davis) Teach Me to Love, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1982.

(Under pseudonym Nancy L. Jones) Jessie's Song, Signet (New York, NY), 1983.

(Under pseudonym Wendi Davis) Sealed with a Kiss, Silhouette (New York, NY), 1984.

The Greatest Show on Earth, Bantam (New York, NY), 1984.

Winner Take All, Bantam (New York, NY), 1984.

Finders Keepers, Bantam (New York, NY), 1985.

His Fair Lady, Bantam (New York, NY), 1985.

Out of This World, Bantam (New York, NY), 1985.

Emerald Fire, Bantam (New York, NY), 1986.

Once in Love with Amy, Bantam (New York, NY), 1986.

Pearl Harbor: 1941 (historical), Pocket (New York, NY), 2001.

Daughter of the Flames, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2006.

Daughter of the Blood, Silhouette (New York, NY), 2006.

ROMANCE NOVELS; UNDER PSEUDONYM LAUREL CHANDLER

Treasure of Love, Rapture Romances (New York, NY), 1983.

Heart's Victory, Rapture Romances (New York, NY), 1983.

Shades of Moonlight, Rapture Romances (New York, NY), 1984.

Boundless Love, Rapture Romances (New York, NY), 1984.

HORROR NOVELS

Rough Cut, Warner (New York, NY), 1990.

The Ghosts of Tivoli, Pulphouse Publishing (Eugene, OR), 1992.

(With Melanie Tem) Making Love, Dell Abyss (New York, NY), 1993.

Dead in the Water, Dell Abyss (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Melanie Tem) Witch-Light, Dell Horror (New York, NY), 1996.

"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" NOVELS

(With Christopher Golden) Halloween Rain, Pocket (New York, NY), 1997.

The Angel Chronicles, Pocket (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Christopher Golden) Blooded, Archway (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Christopher Golden) Child of the Hunt, Pocket (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Christopher Golden) Immortal: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Novel, Pocket (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Christopher Golden) Out of the Madness: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (first novel in "The Gatekeeper" trilogy), Pocket (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Christopher Golden) Ghost Roads: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (second novel in "The Gatekeeper" trilogy), Pocket (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Christopher Golden) Sons of Entropy: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (third novel in "The Gatekeeper" trilogy), Pocket (New York, NY), 1999.

The Evil that Men Do, Pocket (New York, NY), 2000.

The Book of Fours: A Historie of the Four Slayers, This Being Their First Adventure, as Told by the Watcher of the Fifth Slayer, Pocket (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Jeff Mariotte) The Burning, Pocket (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Jeff Mariotte) Door to Alternity, Pocket (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Jeff Mariotte) Long Way Home, Pocket (New York, NY), 2001.

The Journals of Rupert Giles, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Christopher Golden) The Longest Night, Pocket (New York, NY), 2002.

Chosen, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2003.

Blood and Fog, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2003.

Heat, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 2004.

Queen of the Slayers, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 2005.

Keep Me in Mind, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 2005.

Carnival of Souls, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 2006.

"ANGEL/BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" NOVELS

Angel: City Of, Pocket (New York, NY), 1999.

Angel: Not Forgotten, Pocket (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Jeff Mariotte and Maryelizabeth Hart) Angel: The Casefiles, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Jeff Mariotte) Endangered Species, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2002.

"WICKED" SERIES; NOVELS

(With Debbie Viquie) Witch, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Debbie Viquie) Spellbound, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Debbie Viquie) Legacy, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Debbie Viquie) Curse, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2003.

"SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH" SERIES; NOVELS

Spying Eyes, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 1998.

Eight Spells a Week, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Diana G. Gallagher) Bridal Bedlam, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 1999.

Up, Up and Away, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Nell Scovell) Scarabian Nights, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 1999.

Feline Felon, Pocket (New York, NY), 1999.

Millennium Madness, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 2000.

"GAMBLER'S STAR" SERIES; SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS

The Six Families, Avon (New York, NY), 1998.

Legacies and Lies, Avon EOS (New York, NY), 1999.

Invasions, Avon EOS (New York, NY), 2000.

OTHER

Measure of a Man: Highlander, Warner, 1997.

(With Christopher Golden and Keith R.A. De Candido) Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Pocket (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Christopher Golden and Keith R.A. De Candido) Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, Pocket (New York, NY), 2000.

Ivanhound, edited by Kevin Ryan, Lyrick Publishing (Allen, TX), 2000.

Hauntings ("Smallville" series), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Silence "Smallville" series), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Spirited (historical novel), Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2004.

(Editor, with Nancy Kilpatrick) Outsiders (anthology), ROC (New York, NY), 2005.

Pretty Little Devils (novel), Razorbill (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of novel Cannibal Dwight's Special Purpose and of over two hundred articles, essays, and short stories. Contributor to books, including Women of Darkness, edited by Kathryn Ptacek, Tor Horror, 1988; Borderlands, edited by Thomas F. Monteleone, White Wolf, 1994; Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Slayer 3, Simon Spotlight (New York, NY), 2003; and Hot Blood XI: Fatal Attractions, edited by Michael Garrett and Jeff Gelb, 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Nancy L. Holder is the author of many romance, horror, and science fiction novels, as well as hundreds of short stories. She grew up in Japan and California, living near San Francisco. As a youngster, she read Shakespeare with her father and developed a love of foreign languages. Together, they once wrote a play based on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles that Holder taped for a book report. Holder began writing in the second grade, including a romance about a mermaid. She continued writing with support from her father and grandmother, but Holder wanted to be a ballet dancer and dropped out of high school, moving to Germany to study dance. She eventually dropped out of dance, however, commenting to interviewer Paula Guran on Dark Echo: "When I quit ballet, it was an immense relief. I never enjoyed it very much. I was simply obsessed by it." Returning to the United States, she earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California. She was writing young adult romance novels and working nights, when her boyfriend—later her husband—offered to support her full-time writing efforts. This soon resulted in fifteen completed romance novels.

Kathryn Ptacek, whom Holder met at a romance writers convention, introduced her to Ptacek's husband, Charles L. Grant, an editor of horror anthologies. Holder submitted numerous short stories to Grant while writing romance novels. Her story "Cannibal Cats Come out Tonight," was included in Ptacek's anthology Women of Darkness in 1988, and was followed by four more "Cannibal Cats" tales. Holder's Dead in the Water was her first solo horror novel. The book has a "legend of the Flying Dutchman" theme: shipwrecked passengers are picked up by the ghoulish captain of the mysterious luxury liner Pandora, who is intent on capturing their souls.

Asked by Guran why she writes horror, Holder remarked: "Why do I write horror? I have absolutely no clue. I guess I can respond with, why not?" Holder further elaborated: "I think we human-types all like this stuff, but some of us have closed that area off. 'Keep out. Off limits.' Horror readers and writers just go around those barriers and slog through the sewers."

Holder has also written several books tied to the popular Buffy, the Vampire Slayer television series. As a Publishers Weekly reviewer explained in a review of Holder's Immortal: Buffy the Vampire Slayer—her novelization of the series' premise—"Buffy is a normal teenage girl who moonlights as a 'slayer' under the guidance of her 'watcher,' Rupert Giles." The show is set in a sunny Southern California suburb, but Buffy's Sunnydale is actually the epicenter of evil on the planet, and Rupert often assigns Buffy and her fellow slayers some gruesome jobs, which they carry out with aplomb. The show has also won praise for its mix of campy horror and teen angst, with Buffy and her friends taking part in the usual teen dramas of school, dating, and home life.

Holder wrote many of the Buffy books with Christopher Golden. The pair teamed with Keith R.A. De Candido to deliver the definitive resource on the show, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide. The second volume brings readers up to date for seasons three and four. Each volume features detailed plot summaries, but also in-depth explanations of the many references to popular culture that have earned the show a cult following among teens and adults. Other sections include a behind-the-scenes look at how an episode is created; interviews that Holder and her coauthors conducted with cast members and production staff add further insights. One can even learn where the wardrobe department shops for Buffy's clothes. "It's all here for die-hard fans," wrote Stephanie Zvirin in a Booklist review of The Watcher's Guide. Zvirin also noted that while the book's "text is enthusiastic if not always polished," Buffy aficionados "won't be deterred." Entertainment Weekly critic Kristen Baldwin also predicted that it would appeal to a certain readership: Buffy "addicts will no doubt suck this trivia-laden tome dry with fanatic ferocity."

Holder has also written other works in the Buffy universe, including The Book of Fours: A Historie of the Four Slayers, This Being Their First Adventure, as Told by the Watcher of the Fifth Slayer. The story is set during the show's third season, in which Buffy and Faith must call upon the ghosts of two dead Slayers, Kendra and India, to help when Sunnydale is beset by bad weather and a series of fires. After nefarious creatures wielding axes are spotted in town, Buffy learns that a sorceress wants her and the other Slayers dead in order to feed their essence to a force of evil known as the Gatherer. Booklist contributor Kristine Huntley found it "full of the action and wit characteristic of the popular television series."

In Pretty Little Devils, a standalone novel, Holder explores the horror inherent in the world of high school social hierarchies. The novel's eponymous clique is a group of the four most popular girls in their California high school—they even outrank the cheerleaders on the popularity scale. Known to be a little wild and rebellious, they can easily push the limits of the school's rules and get away with it. Sylvia, the group's leader, enforces the PLD's strict code of behavior, even while helping the other girls find babysitting jobs and leading regular shopping excursions. Among the other girls who watch the PLDs with envy is Hazel, an unpopular girl who longs to be part of the school's Alpha group. When one of the Devils is about to be replaced, Sylvia approaches Hazel and asks her to join, which both astonishes and delights Hazel. As Hazel settles into this new and unfamiliar world, she finds that Sylvia's efforts rocket her popularity to delirious levels. Hazel is invited to the right parties, hangs out with the right people, and even gets set up on dates with boys she has crushes on. Soon, however, Hazel realizes that there is an unspeakable dark side to her newfound social status. When a mysterious and dangerous individual known only by the chat room handle of HAPPY2BME tries to destroy the PLDs, the costs of associating with such a capricious, cruel, and diabolical group of devils quickly exceed the rewards. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book an "interesting, scary mystery." Reviewer Ilene Cooper, writing in Booklist, observed that young readers "who think this is just a chick-lit book will find more than they bargained for."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Reginald, Robert, Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature, 1975–1991, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1992.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2001, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, p. 1032; February 15, 2001, Kristine Huntley, review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Book of Fours, p. 1122; October 15, 2002, Catherine Andronik, review of Witch, p. 401; February 15, 2006, Ilene Cooper, review of Pretty Little Devils, p. 91.

Entertainment Weekly, October 9, 1998, Kristen Baldwin, review of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, p. 78.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2004, review of Spirited, p. 1090; September 1, 2005, review of Outsiders, p. 936; December 1, 2005, review of Pretty Little Devils, p. 1274.

Kliatt, March, 2003, Barbara Jo McKee, review of Curse, p. 34; November, 2004, Claire Rosser, review of Spirited, p. 22; January, 2006, Michele Winship, review of Pretty Little Devils, p. 8.

Library Journal, October 15, 2005, Jackie Cassada, review of Outsiders, p. 50.

Publishers Weekly, November 1, 1999, review of Immortal: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, p. 40; September 12, 2005, review of Outsiders, p. 48.

School Library Journal, November, 2002, Molly S. Kinney, review of Witch, p. 168; April, 2003, Kimberly L. Paone, review of Curse, p. 164; January, 2004, Molly S. Kinney, review of Spellbound, p. 130; February, 2006, Leah Krippner, review of Pretty Little Devils, p. 132.

Writer's Digest, July, 1996, Don Vaughan, "From Hot Thrills to Deep Chills," profile of Nancy Holder, p. 6.