The Probabilities Archive: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro & Tanith Lee: Virtuosos of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1942-2025)

Tanith Lee (1947-2015)

This podcast honors two master practitioners of horror, fantasy and science fiction, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Tanith Lee, with two interviews back to back. In the first, in 1983, Tanith Lee is interviewed by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. In the second, in 1979, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is interviewed by Richard Wolinsky. 

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, who died on August 31, 2025 at the age of 82, was best known for her historical horror novels featuring the vampire the Count Saint.-Germain. Along the way, she wrote in several genres, including science fiction and westerns, and wrote over seventy novels, along with several short stories. Along with her writing, which includes a series of books about a channeler,  titled Messages from Michael, she was a cartographer, palm reader, and composer. In 2009, she received the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association. She also wrote novels under several pseudonyms.

In this podcast, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro joins Richard A. Lupoff to speak with Tanith Lee. In the second interview, she talks about her vampire hero. Count Saint-Germain, and about writing historical horror fiction. It was recorded shortly after her second San Germain novel, The Palace, was published, which would put it in late 1978 or early 1979..

 

Tanith Lee, who died of breast cancer in 2015 at the age of 67, also wrote fantasy, science fiction and horror, and her work is considered to be similar and a forerunner of the work of Neil Gaiman. She received a lifetime achievement award from the World Horror Convention in 2013. Nominated for several awards for her novels and short stories, she won the 1980 British Fantasy Award for her novel, Death’s Master.

In this first undated tnterview from Probabilities, most likely recorded at BayCon in San Jose in November 1983, Tanith Lee is interviewed by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Richard A. Lupoff. This is the only interview conducted by Quinn Yarbro for Probabilities.

Tanith Lee’s novel set during the French Revolution was eventually retitled The Gods Are Thirsty, and was finally published in 1996. You’ve been listening to an interview with Tanith Lee, conducted by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Richard A. Lupoff for the Probabilities radio program on KPFA. It was digitized, remastered and edited on September 24. 2025.

 

 

 

 

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