Warren C. Norwood (1945-2005) remembered drawing careful curlicues across a sheet of paper at a very early age. Then he asked his mother if it was writing yet. It didn’t become real writing for many years. But putting words on paper was always his first love.

Drafted into the United States Army in 1966, he served in the 173^rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam. He returned stateside in 1968, and his daughter was born a year later. When he left the Army, he moved to Denton, Texas, to earn his bachelor’s degree at the University of North Texas.

Warren’s Career as a Novelist

Warren C. Norwood published thirteen science fiction novels in his life. His first, An Image of Voices, was published in 1981. On the strength of that novel he was nominated for what was then called the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. It now is known as the Astounding Award. Then as now, it was a significant honor. He received a second nomination after his second novel Flexing the Warp was published. The books combined his love of poetry and folklore with some of his wartime experiences. He later received at least one nomination for the Hugo Award during his career.

Man of Many Talents

In addition to writing novels and poetry, Norwood was a highly respected writing teacher. More than 50 of his students gained professional publication. They include novelists Viqui Litman, Lori Wilde, and Deborah Crombie.

He met G. S. Norwood at a Kansas City science fiction convention in 1983. He talked her into moving to Texas in 1985, and they married in 1988.

He had a lifelong desire to play music, but didn’t find the right instrument until G. bought him a mountain dulcimer for Christmas in 1987. From then on, he became a passionate advocate for the dulcimer and music in general. In the last decades of his life he wrote a number of dulcimer tablature books and taught anybody who would stand still and listen to his spiel.

Warren C. Norwood died in 2005 from complications caused by his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

A New Chapter for Warren’s Books with Weird Sisters Publishing

Warren’s first two stories about the adventures of contract diplomat Gerard Manley eventually multiplied into a four-book science fiction series called The Windhover Tapes. Since 2022, Weird Sisters Publishing has been working to bring the whole series back into print (and for the first time as ebooks).

The retitled Windhover Tetralogy remains true to the original text, but the book design is radically different. In addition to new covers (Warren hated his old covers), the Weird Sisters Publishing edition will include an illustration at the start of each chapter. Three artists combined forces to create the illustrations: Lucy A. Synk, Chaz Kemp, and Jose-Luis Segura.

In addition to his published novels, Warren left several unpublished works at his death. His widow G. S. Norwood inherited the rights to manage his literary estate, and was working with Jan S. Gephardt to bring them back into print via Weird Sisters Publishing.

After G.’s passing in 2024, the publishing rights passed jointly to Warren’s daughter Margaret and the University of North Texas Special Collections. The Warren C. Norwood Collection there is a highlight of the UNT Library’s Texana Collection. Stay tuned for more Weird Sisters updates and projected future publications of his work.

Read more about Warren C. Norwood’s Windhover novels on their new webpage, coming soon!