I was saddened to learn of the recent death of Jean Rabe
(See “RIP
Jean Rabe”). She had been in poor health for the past couple of years with an extended stay in the
hospital last year but had recovered enough for the hospital to discharge her
to return home to her husband Bruce and her beloved pugs last fall.
I knew Jean initially from her stint coordinating
Glathricon, an now defunct gaming convention in Evansville Indiana (See “From
RPGA to Award Winning Author”). She worked as a journalist there, her
primary focus covering crime in the city while pursuing her avid interest in
role playing games. When a position opened up in the RPGA (Role Playing Game
Association, the precursor to today’s D&D Adventurer’s League, she applied
for and got it, becoming RPGA co-ordinator and editor of the Polyhedron, the
house magazine of the RPGA. As part of her duties, she also took over
co-ordination of Winter Fantasy, an annual convention focusing on RPGA events
located in Milwaukee for most of the 1990s and in Fort Wayne, Indiana since
2009 . Wanting to focus more on her own writing, she left the RPGA in 1994,
pursuing a career as a freelance writer and editor, often with TSR but also
with FASA, editing the BattleTech magazine MechForce and writing some
stories set in the Star Wars Universe for West End Games’ Star Wars
Adventure Journal. TSR also tapped her to write the first sequels to the
original Dragonlance series, the Dragons of a New Age trilogy as
well as another half dozen novels set in the world of Krynn
Rather surprisingly, at least to me, despite her involvement
in the RPG industry, she only worked on five modules of which I know: Child’s Play, Terrible Trouble at
Tragidore, Krynnspace, Vale of the Mage and Swamplight. Her
preferences leaned more towards writing and editing genre fiction, with three Endless
Quest books, a Shadowrun novel, three collaborations with Andre
Norton and several other books tied into assorted fantasy role playing settings
as well as spending a bit over a decade editing a number of anthologies for
DAW. Her peers thought enough of her to elect her Grandmaster of the
International Association of Media tie In Writers in 2020 and editor of the SWFA
Bulletin, the bimonthly magazine for the Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writers of America. In more recent years, her focus had turned to mysteries
with the publication of The Love Haight Files, co-written with long-time friend
Don Biggle and the Piper Blackwell mysteries, set in a rural Indiana that Rabe
knew well from her time in Evansville.
The last few times I ran into Jean were at Chambanacon, a SF
relaxacon in Champaign Urbana where she appeared as a panelist talking about
her recent works and Quincon, a small gaming convention in Quincy Illinois,
which she and Bruce both attended, not as writers but as Pathfinder players.
Both avidly played Pathfinder, online and in-person. Her most important
job, as she saw it though, was pugmother to her two pugs, Hunny and Missy and
her social media feed was filled with pictures of them.
Jean was one of the friendliest people I ever knew and the
world is a little darker without her. Thanks for the stories and the
friendship, Jean.
