Editing John Varley (author) (section)

==Biography==
Varley was born in [[Austin, Texas]]. He grew up in [[Fort Worth]], moved to [[Port Arthur, Texas|Port Arthur]] in 1957, graduated from [[Nederland, Texas|Nederland High School]]—all in Texas—and went to [[Michigan State University]] on a [[National Merit]] Scholarship. He started as a physics major, switched to English, then left school before his 20th birthday and arrived in [[Haight-Ashbury]] district of San Francisco just in time for the "[[Summer of Love]]" in 1967. There he worked at various unskilled jobs, depended on St. Anthony's Mission for meals, and panhandled outside the Cala Market on Stanyan Street (since closed) before deciding that writing had to be a better way to make a living. He was serendipitously present at [[Woodstock]] in 1969 when his car ran out of gas a half-mile away. He also has lived at various times in [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]] and [[Eugene, Oregon]], New York City, San Francisco again, [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]], and Los Angeles.

Varley has written several novels (his first attempt, ''Gas Giant'', was, he admits, "pretty bad") and numerous short stories, many of them in a [[future history]], [[Eight Worlds|"The Eight Worlds"]]. These stories are set a century or two after a race of mysterious and omnipotent aliens, the Invaders, have almost completely eradicated humans from the Earth (they regard whales and dolphins to be the superior Terran lifeforms and humans only a dangerous infestation). But humans have inhabited virtually every other corner of the [[Solar System]], often through the use of biological modifications learned, in part, by [[eavesdropping]] on alien communications.

Varley's "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" was [[Overdrawn at the Memory Bank|adapted and televised for PBS in 1983]]. In addition, two of his short stories ("Options" and "Blue Champagne") were adapted into episodes of the short-lived 1998 Sci-Fi Channel TV series ''[[Welcome to Paradox]]''.

Varley spent some years in Hollywood but the only tangible result of this stint was the film ''[[Millennium (film)|Millennium]]''. Of his ''Millennium'' experience Varley said:

{{quote|We had the first meeting on ''Millennium'' in 1979. I ended up writing it six times. There were four different directors, and each time a new director came in I went over the whole thing with him and rewrote it. Each new director had his own ideas, and sometimes you'd gain something from that, but each time something's always lost in the process, so that by the time it went in front of the cameras, a lot of the vision was lost.<ref>Interview in ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday'', July 20, 1992</ref>}}

Varley is often compared{{by whom|date=October 2021}} to [[Robert A. Heinlein]].{{citation needed|date=October 2021}} In addition to a similarly descriptive writing style, similarities include a [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] political perspective and advocacy of [[free love]]. Two of his connected novels, ''[[Steel Beach]]'' and ''[[The Golden Globe]]'', include a sub-society of Heinleiners.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Heinleiner |url=http://www.diclib.com/Heinleiner/show/en/amslang/4582 |access-date=February 17, 2019 |website=www.diclib.com}}</ref>{{Unreliable source|date=October 2021}} ''The Golden Globe'' also contains a society evolved from a prison colony on [[Pluto]] and a second society evolved from it on Pluto's moon, [[Charon (moon)|Charon]], similar to the situation found in Heinlein's ''[[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]]''. Unlike Heinlein's lunar society, Varley's convict society on Charon maintains its criminal ways and is similar to the [[Sicilian Mafia|Mafia]] or the ''[[yakuza]]''. His ''Thunder and Lightning'' series plays on his connection with Heinlein by deriving its main characters' names from many of Heinlein's characters, including Jubal, Manuel Garcia, Kelly, Podkayne, Cassie, and Polly, and by frequently dropping titles of Heinlein's novels in the dialogue.

In 2021, Varley announced a series of health problems including a quadruple bypass, COVID-19, and bacterial pneumonia.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://varley.net/nonfiction/varleylog/what-a-year-this-has-been/ | title=What a year this has been – John Varley }}</ref>  Colleagues organized a crowdfunding campaign to pay his expenses while he was unable to write.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://varley.net/nonfiction/varleylog/recovering/ | title=Recovering – John Varley }}</ref>  At that time he described himself as living near [[Vancouver, Washington]].