She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack. Her historical fantasy novels, The Forest House, Lady of Avalon, Mists of Avalon are prequels to Priestess of Avalon. She wrote a novel of the women in the Arthurian legends - Morgan Le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and others - entitled Mists of Avalon, which made the NY Times best seller list both in hardcover and trade paperback, and she also wrote The Firebrand, a novel about the women of the Trojan War. Over the years she turned more to fantasy The House Between the Worlds, although a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, was 'fantasy undiluted'. She also edited an annual anthology called Sword and Sorceress for DAW Books. Bradley edited many magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, which she started in 1988. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for her Darkover novels. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story to Vortex Science Fiction.

She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens, and made her first sale as an adjunct to an amateur fiction contest in Fantastic/Amazing Stories in 1949. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67. So instead of their actions being understandable, they are 'evil' or 'jerks'.Marion Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Instead, they rework scenes so that people become one dimensional, and important REASONS for why they do things are lost. Some might be considered 'minor plot sidetracks' but the *gist* of the emotional changes could have been included in the story. Mordred is very upset when his brother is killed, when Lance runs off.Mordred goes back to Morgause, gives the 'I drink to death' speech in a sad and bitter way - NOT in a jolly way.Morgaine marries the dad barely knowing the son, becomes a Priestess and then sleeps with Accolon.Gwen accuses Arthur of loving Lancelot, learns of the sin and then wants Arthur to confess despite the above.Lancelot saved her and she slept with him proudly. Gwen is captured and raped by her 'brother'.In the threesome scene he explicitly touches Arthur and is loving *him* too. Lancelot admits he won't leave Arthur because of his love for Arthur.Morgaine actually told Gwydion about the son.I found many of the plot devices in the miniseries completely skewed the meaning of the book, making it about the same 'subject' but warping the characters completely.

The mist of avalon book series