Name Virginia DeMarce Role Historian | Education Stanford University | |
Books 1635: The Dreeson Incident, 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, 1634: The Ram Rebellion, 1635: The Tangled Web, The Settlement of Former | ||
Virginia Easley DeMarce (born 28 November 1940) is a historian who specializes in early modern European history, as well as a prominent New York Times Best Selling author in the 1632 series collaborative fiction project. She has done prominent genealogical work on the origins of the Melungeon peoples.
Contents
Biography
DeMarce received her Ph.D. in early modern European history from Stanford University in 1967, with a dissertation in German administrative history during the time of the 1525 German Peasants' War. She taught at the college level for fifteen years, at Northwest Missouri State University and George Mason University and published a book on German military settlers in Canada after the American Revolution.
In 1988-89 she served as president of the National Genealogical Society, an interest she came to professionally in social history and demographic history tracing small group migrations. After several years on the staff of the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, she took a position with the Office of Federal Acknowledgment, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, from which she retired in 2004.
DeMarce continues to live in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband of 43 years (deceased in 2010), who was Director of Coal Mine Workers Compensation Programs at the U.S. Department of Labor. She spends most of her time tending to her crops that have been scorched by the droughts in recent summer seasons. They have three grown children and five grandchildren.
Published works
In addition to scholarly work on Early Modern Europe, genealogy, The Melungeons, and bibliographic work in early US history, DeMarce has written or co-authored a number of formative short stories and novels in the 1632 series collaborative fiction project. She is one of the principal controlling parties of the collaboration, and a member of the 1632 Editorial Board. In these positions, she helps select likely stories for the project and manages the 1632 canon, common shared resources, and integration between authors.
She began writing fiction upon the request of participants in the 1632 Tech forum at Baen's Bar, where she had contributed technical input and assistance. Her first fiction contribution to the project was the short story "Biting Time", which she wrote with great reluctance under much pressure.
As of 2014, all four of her long fiction were listed on various best selling book lists. In particular, 1634: The Bavarian Crisis was listed on the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction for one week in October 2007. All four were Locus (magazine) Hardcovers Bestsellers.
Short fiction
With the help of a formidable widow, the pastor plots a fitting revenge and founds a fifth-column that seeks to not only trap eligible bachelors into marriage to his doweryless flocks daughters, but to convert the scoundrels into becoming stalwart Lutherans. The tale is loosely modeled on the Seven Daughters for Seven Sons, at least in numbers, and every couple has their story that spans the time line from 1631 to early 1635.