dierna
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# Posted: 16 Mar 2006 11:16
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http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=35011
SF writer Ronald Anthony Cross, who gained his widest acclaim from his Eternal Guardians series of novels, which first appeared in 1994, died March 1 of complications following a stroke in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 68.
Cross published more than 50 short stories since1973 in publications such as Asimov's, Fantasy and Science Fiction and Science Fiction Age, but he was best known the Eternal Guardians series, which comprised The Fourth Guardian (1994), The Lost Guardian (1995) and The White Guardian (1998). These novels told tales of four Guardians who possess powerful magic stones that not only make their bearers immortal, but also enable them to travel through time and to alter history at whim. A fourth book, The First Guardian, was completed before Cross' death and will be published by Tor.
Cross' first novel, Prisoners of Paradise, came out in 1988. Before that, he was a short-story writer, starting with "The Story of Three Cities" in New Worlds in 1973. His works have been translated into other languages and have also appeared in The Berkeley Showcase and the Japanese SF magazine Psypherboria.
According to Cross' son, Gideon, the late SF writer Terry Carr once called Cross "SF's most original voice since R.A. Lafferty."
Besides SF, Cross wrote about the Vietnam War in The Heavenly Blue Answer and had completed a detective novel, Death Valley.
Before turning to SF, Cross wrote poetry, painted and played jazz and folk guitar as part of the Venice, Calif., art scene of the early 1960s, Gideon Cross said.
Ronald Anthony Cross was born Sept. 12, 1937, in Hollywood, Calif. He had little interest in formal education and spent time living in vacant lots and keeping his writings in cardboard boxes. He worked as a gardener, built swimming pools and operated bumper cars before going to work for the UCLA Photographic Services Department, where he stayed until his writing career took off.
He almost went into a music career, as he was once slated to open for The Mamas and the Papas, Gideon Cross said. But newly married, he didn't want to travel and shifted his focus to writing.
Cross is survived by his wife of 40 years, Barbara; his son, Gideon; and his brother, Michael
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