Writers Diana Glyer, a professor at Azusa Pacific University, and her husband Mike Glyer in their Monrovia home office on April 20. Both writers are nominated for the Hugo Award, a prestigious science-fiction achievement award. Diana Glyer is nominated for her first book, "The Company They Keep," and Mike Glyer for his longstanding newsletter File 770. (Photos by Sarah Reingewirtz / Staff)






It was a puzzle that took some 24 years to assemble. Its pieces lay hidden in fragments of letters and diaries, in crossed-out notations and private correspondence — a patchwork of ideas waiting to tell a collective story.


Decades ago, Diana Glyer undertook the role of literary seamstress to weave together a little-told narrative of the creative relationship between authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their storied writing circle, the Inklings.


"It has been a delightful process, but a long one," said Diana Glyer, professor of English at Azusa Pacific University. "This book is the result of 20 years of playing Sherlock Holmes behind the scenes and trying to figure everything I could about how they inspired and challenged one another as a result of their friendship."


Published in March last year and due out in paperback in July, the resulting book — "The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community" (Kent State University Press) — may now be poised to receive the science fiction world's top honor, a Hugo Award.


Nominations for the Hugo Awards were announced in March, and the winners will be revealed at an Aug. 9 ceremony during the 66th World Science Fiction Convention in Denver.


One of five contenders in the Best Related Book category, "The Company They Keep" is Diana Glyer's first book, but the prestigious nomination comes alongside another milestone — her husband Mike Glyer


is also nominated this year for a Hugo Award in a separate category, Best Fanzine.

 


Something of a WSFC veteran, Mike Glyer has won eight Hugo Awards in years past for his long-running science-fiction newsletter File 770, which is celebrating 30 years of publication, and he previously held the record for most Hugo Award nominations.


But this year, the Monrovia couple have both of their names printed on the ballot, only the second time in the 55-year history of the Hugo Awards that a married couple have been nominated in the same year for independent projects.


"If we both win, it will be the first time that that ever happened, which would be really amazing," Diana Glyer said.


The dual Hugo nominations — and soon, perhaps, even dual wins — is befitting of the couple, who share a creative writing space in their home's converted garage. Occasionally, their 6-year-old daughter Sierra Grace joins them, pulling up a tiny chair and settling down between their adjacent desks with her Barbie-brand children's laptop.


Brimming with stacks of books, the joint space is one where the Glyers talk about writing projects, bounce ideas off one another and critique each other's work.


"A lot of




Diana Glyer's book, "The Company They Keep," was published in hardback last year and will be released in paperback in July. (Photos by Sarah Reingewirtz / Staff)



what we're able to do is just listen to each other," Diana Glyer said. "We talk and toss ideas back and forth before any words are written at all."

 


Although the Glyers' writing styles and influences are different — "I write more in an academic setting; he writes in a more journalistic setting," she said — the contrast often proves to be complementary.


"Mike and I are very useful to each other, because we come from different backgrounds and we write very different kinds of things," Diana Glyer said. "I think it makes our writing much better."


Tolkien and Lewis themselves, she pointed out, had distinct differences as authors.


"In almost every way you can imagine, they're very different kinds of




Mike Glyer stands with some of his Hugo Awards in his Monrovia home on April 20. (Photos by Sarah Reingewirtz / Staff)



writers," Diana Glyer said. "And it's because they're so different that they're so useful to each other."

 


During the writing process, the Glyers share mutual feedback that can take the form of minor grammatical corrections to more fundamental concerns over style and content. And the constructive criticism isn't always easy to give and take.


"Diana's very brave in explaining things that she thinks I need to work on in my text," Mike Glyer said. "There are not many writers who want to hear anything except unalloyed praise, but it goes back to the point with the Inklings — they really wanted to know these things."


It's just one creative cue the Glyers take from Tolkien and Lewis, who were among the 19 members of the Inklings meeting twice a week for 17 years during the 1930s and '40s in Oxford, England.


"They spent that time reading their rough drafts out loud to each other, critiquing them, challenging each other, correcting each other, re-writing each other," Diana Glyer said.


This notion of creative collaboration is one that has long captivated Diana Glyer since before her undergraduate studies in English at Bowling Green State University, through her doctoral degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and into her teaching curriculum at APU.


"I got interested to learn about that magical in-between space from when you get an idea to when you have a finished product," she explained. "The study of where great ideas come from and how great ideas turn into finished products — that has always fascinated me."


At APU, where she has taught for 13 years, Diana Glyer brings the lessons culled from many years of study and writing into her classrooms.


"I believe that writing thrives in community," she said. "Writing is an outgrowth of lively conversation and interaction. ... I encourage my students to get into groups where they're critiquing and giving each other feedback."


It's a theme that has also struck a chord with fans of "The Company They Keep," who have written letters to the author after reading the book.


"From the very first fan letter that I got," Diana Glyer said, "what was fascinating to me is that people say the book is inspiring because it helped them in their own creative process."


Now, the inspiration behind her own book has come full circle, and "The Company They Keep" has returned, quite literally, to the region the Inklings — and her most esteemed authors, Tolkien and Lewis — called home.


"Just recently, some friends of mine were in Oxford, and they visited C.S. Lewis' home," Diana Glyer said. "They donated a copy of 'The Company They Keep' to the study center, so there is a copy of my book in C.S. Lewis' home that researchers can use. ... I think about writing about this author for so many years, and now there's a copy in his very own home."