Editing George Alec Effinger (section)

==Writing career==
Effinger was born in [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]], on January 10, 1947.<ref name=carlsonobit>{{cite news|last=Carlson|first=Michael|title=Obituary: George Alec Effinger|work=The Guardian|date=May 21, 2002|accessdate=January 10, 2024|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/may/21/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries}}</ref> His father was a [[United States Navy]] veteran and his mother was a [[Prostitution|prostitute]], and he grew up very poor.<ref name=cle19n>{{cite web|last=Simpson|first=Doug|title=Science Fiction Writer, Cleveland Native, Dies At 55|work=Cleveland 19 News|date=April 29, 2002|accessdate=January 10, 2024|url=https://www.cleveland19.com/story/762132/science-fiction-writer-cleveland-native-dies-at-55/}}</ref>

He attended Yale University on a scholarship,<ref name=cle19n /> but he failed [[organic chemistry]] and dropped out of the pre-med program. He moved to New York City and began writing. His first wife, Diana, sometimes babysat for [[Damon Knight]] and [[Kate Wilhelm]], a married couple who were both [[science fiction]] writers. He joined the [[Clarion Workshop|Clarion Writers' Workshop]] which they sponsored.<ref name=carlsonobit />

Effinger's first three stories were published in the first Clarion anthology in 1971.<ref name=carlsonobit /> His first published story was "The Eight-Thirty to Nine Slot" in ''[[Fantastic (magazine)|Fantastic]]'' in 1971. During his early period, he also published under a variety of [[pseudonym]]s.

His first novel, ''What Entropy Means to Me'' (1972), was nominated for the [[Nebula Award for Best Novel|Nebula Award]]. He achieved his greatest success with the trilogy of [[Marîd Audran]] novels set in a 22nd-century [[Middle East]], with cybernetic implants and modules allowing individuals to change their personalities or bodies. The novels are in fact set in a thinly veiled version of the [[French Quarter]] of [[New Orleans]]. The three published novels were ''[[When Gravity Fails]]'' (1987), ''[[A Fire in the Sun]]'' (1989), and ''[[The Exile Kiss]]'' (1991); Effinger also contributed to the computer game ''[[Circuit's Edge]]'' (1990), based on ''When Gravity Fails''. He began a fourth Budayeen novel, ''Word of Night'', but completed only the first two chapters. Those two chapters were reprinted in the anthology  ''[[Budayeen Nights]]'' (2003) which has all of Effinger's short material from the Marîd Audran setting.

His novelette "[[Schrödinger's Kitten]]" (1988) received both the [[Hugo Award for Best Novelette|Hugo]] and the [[Nebula Award for Best Novelette|Nebula Award]], as well as the Japanese [[Seiun Award]]. A collection of his stories was published posthumously in 2005, entitled ''George Alec Effinger Live! From Planet Earth''; includes the complete stories Effinger wrote under the pseudonym "O. Niemand" and many of Effinger's best-known stories. Each O. Niemand story is a pastiche in the voice of a different major American writer ([[Flannery O'Connor]], [[Damon Runyon]], [[Mark Twain]], etc.), all set on the asteroid city of Springfield. "Niemand" is from the German word for "nobody", and the initial O was intended by Effinger as a visual pun for Zero, and possibly also as a reference to the author O. Henry.

Other stories he wrote were the series of Maureen (Muffy) Birnbaum parodies, which placed a [[preppy]] into a variety of science fictional, fantasy, and horror scenarios.

He made brief forays into writing [[comic books]] in the early 1970s, mostly in [[Marvel Comics]]' science fiction, fantasy, and horror titles; and again in the late 1980s, including the first issue of a series of his own creation entitled ''Neil and Buzz in Space & Time'', about two fictional astronauts who travel to the edge of the universe to find it contains nothing but an ocean planet with a replica of a small New Jersey town on its only island. The first issue was the only issue, and the story ended on a cliffhanger. It was released by [[Fantagraphics]].<ref>Comic Book Database, [http://comicbookdb.com/issue.php?ID=160266  entry on ''Neil and Buzz...'']. accessed July 29th, 2010</ref>  He also wrote a story based in the [[Zork]] universe.