A. R. Morlan


A. R. Morlan was an American author of novels and short stories whose works of fiction have appeared in anthologies. She wrote in various genres includes horror, science fiction, vampire, erotica, and gay erotica.

Early life

Arlette Renee Morlan was born in Chicago, Illinois, January 3, 1958. From 1961 to 1969, she lived in Los Angeles, California. Morlan described a troubled childhood in a 2014 interview. Her mother and maternal grandmother had isolated her and terrorized her. After Morlan's mother lost custody of Arlette, the mother took Arlette to a different state and for fifty years, Arlette was out of contact with her father.
Morlan graduated from Mount Senario College in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, in 1980.

Career

Morlan's first story, "Four Days Before the Snow", was published in 1985. More short stories and novels followed, including The Amulet and Dark Journey. In the 1990s, she worked for the Writer's Digest as an instructor for correspondence courses, but with a changing market brought on by technology, she was dropped by this employer. Morlan had "no computer, no Internet, and no cell phone". Describing herself as being "totally computer illiterate", she worked on a typewriter and used carbon paper to produce a duplicate copy of her writings.
By 2000, Morlan had published 93 works of short fiction. Several of her collections were published, such as Smothered Dolls, Ewerton Death Trip, and Homely in the Cradle and Other Stories. She used various pen names for her science fiction and horror works, including Renee M. Charles and Ana Rose Morlan, eventually changing her legal name to the latter. Her erotica works were published as Renee M. Charles, while her gay erotica publications were under the pseudonym, Karl Rene Moore. Morlan was influenced by Mary Shelley, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Alice Sheldon.

Personal life

Morlan had arthritis and Asperger syndrome. She cared for dozens of cats at a time. In mid-2015, she was charged with cashing her mother's social security checks dating back to 2011.
She was found dead at her home in Ladysmith, Wisconsin on January 6, 2016 in an apparent suicide, which occurred one or two days before. She was 58.

Selected works