Brad Linaweaver (b.1952) died after a lengthy battle with cancer on August 29.  Linaweaver began publishing science fiction in 1980 with the short story “The Competitor.”  His second published story, the novella “Moon of Ice” was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1983 and Linaweaver later expanded it to novel length, for which he won his first Prometheus Award. He won a second Prometheus Award for Free Space.

Linaweaver’s other novels included The Land Beyond Summer and Anarquia, the latter co-written with J. Kent Hastings.  He wrote several media tie-in novels, including Sliders: The Novel, four Doom novels co-written with Dafydd ab Hugh and three Battlestar Galactica novels co-written with Richard Hatch.

Linaweaver was also involved in film production and Hatch appeared in his web series The Silicon Assassin Project.  He produced other short film projects and appeared in several films, usually in bit roles.

In 2004, he co-authored the coffee table book Worlds of Tomorrow: The Amazing Universe of Science Fiction Art with Forrest J Ackerman. He also published Mondo Cult Magazine.

He became friends with the Heinleins, and when Virginia Heinlein died, he inherited the brass cannon that was Robert Heinlein’s inspiration of the signaling gun in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heinlein fired the cannon every Independence Day as part of his celebration. Linaweaver restored the cannon to working condition and continued Heinlein’s tradition.

SFWA President, Mary Robinette Kowal had this to add about Linaweaver:

The family of Science-fiction and Fantasy writers and readers have suffered a loss with the passing of SFWA lifetime member Brad Linaweaver. He leaves us too soon, but with a legacy of words that, I hope, will bring comfort to his family, friends, and fans.