The Perennially Under-Construction Home Page
of
Lynn Maudlin
Welcome
Lynn Maudlin, singer-songwriter, painter, producer, editor, and author was born in Los Angeles back in the last century and studied piano at the USC School of Preparatory Music as a child. She began writing songs at the tender age of 12; if you ply her with fine red wine, she may play you some of those questionable early efforts, but probably not (we all have our pride, after all). An art major through high school and college, favorite areas of expression include oil paints, ceramics, intaglio, silk painting, and pen & ink; water color remains a distant dream. Lynn has been performing as a singer/songwriter for approaching 40 years ("hey, I started at 13, okay?!") in venues as varied as colleges and conferences, nightclubs and coffee houses, science fiction conventions and concert halls in England, Germany, and the U.S.A.
After years with an ISP comp'd home page, here we are at LynnMaudlin.com ("because I am *such* a commercial enterprise! Buy something!") for a variety of reasons and YES, some of those reasons *are* commercial - I have a house payment to make, after all.
Lynn's
first album project is still available on cassette (Dolby B, "At Long
Last Lynn," a collection of ten original songs, including the oft-requested
"If You Can't Live Without Me, Then Why Aren't You Dead?") and will
shortly be re-mastered for (do not faint!) CD.
The St. Jude's worship team put together a semi-spontaneous collection of
songs in support of a friend's out-of-the-country wedding, including Lynn's
"Shepherd Me," a worshipful personal take on the much-beloved 23rd
Psalm.
In the last few years, in addition to worship music, performances have mostly
taken place at conferences and conventions. Loscon, the Los Angeles area
annual science fiction convention and occasionally Westercon utilize Lynn
for both panels and concerts; ConDor, a fun and friendly San
Diego science fiction convention, has made a bunch of die-hard fans very happy
by giving Lynn a 45 minute solo slot during their concert evening, usually a
Friday night - really fun and great place to introduce new material, for
example, I Gotta Kill My Clone and High Frontier (written in
response to the Columbia space shuttle tragedy). Visit their respective websites
for general information about the conventions, other guests and special events.
Lynn has a grown son (highly recommended) from a high-school marriage (not
recommended) who married in 1997 and has kindly made a grandmother of her
(shocking and WONDERFUL!) and inadvertently gave up 17 years in a second
marriage to an L.A. studio musician (also not recommended - who knew?!) to find
herself with an unexpected new life at a time her contemporaries have finally
settled down to raise their late-born kids. In 1996 Lynn produced an extremely
low-budget movie called The
Magazine with writer/director Sallie
Seltzer and worked with writer/director Martha Cotton on her AFI - DWW
(American Film Institute's Directors Workshop for Women) short in the summer of
1997, followed by a teaser for a television series.
The rock doesn't roll in Lynn's life is Jesus (when everything else comes
crashing down around your ears, you gotta hope the foundation's sound).
"It's great to finally be at a place where I can agree with the psalm: I
was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go unto the house of the Lord.'"
Since 1994 that house has been St.
Jude's, a charismatic Episcopal church, and now happily home of priest Fr.
Chuck Mitchell and Seiko, his beautiful and wise wife (Proverbs 31 written all
over this woman!). Lynn is richly blessed to sing and play guitar or keyboard
with the worship teams; great harmonies! She has also discovered and is
developing a gift for prophetic intercession and delighted to have weekly
opportunity to exercise that talent and watch, lost in wonder and awe, as God
knits a small group of very different humans together through His Holy
Spirit. Amazing stuff!
Sizzling Egrets
Lynn has been involved with The Mythopoeic
Society since 1982, served nearly 10 years on the non-profit organization's
board of directors and, after a break of about 12 years, is once again serving
on the Council of Stewards. One of the joys of the MythSoc,
as it is fondly called, is its annual
conference and the joy of a Mythcon is the chance to play with far-flung
friends. A not-too-far-flung friend is Eleanor Farrell and the two, in a Mutt
& Jeff pairing (large blonde and petite brunette) started a spoof of Siskel
& Ebert's film reviews (anybody remember Gene Siskel?!) for the 1992 Tolkien
Centenary Conference (sponsored by The
Tolkien Society and Mythcon 23) "ents" held at Keble College,
Oxford. Lynn "Egrets" Maudlin and Ellie "Sizzling" Farrell
reviewed the three (mythical) film productions of Tolkien's The Lord of the
Rings allegedly released in the previous year, directed by Woody Allen (!),
Oliver Stone, and Ingmar Bergman. The Bergman version used CGI to cast Gerard
Depardieu as Frodo and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Sam; Sizzling Egrets presented a
"clip"... Ellie lay motionless (except for the occasional spasmodic
heaving of her rib cage as she stifled laughter), playing Frodo after Shelob's
attack, while Lynn performed Ahnold-as-Sam's "I'll be back" scene -
check the novel - the dialogue is appallingly appropriate! Despite the
international attendance (Finland, France, Russia, Italy, Australia, Norway and
more were represented), the audience roared with appreciation.
It was amazing to see how Peter Jackson's frustrating and wonderful
visual interpretation of The Lord of the Rings utilized CGI in a more
major way than we'd joked about, less than a decade earlier.
Sizzling Egrets wrote a "con report" for Mythprint, the monthly newsletter of the Mythopoeic Society, and reprised the 1992
performance for Mythcon 24 in Minneapolis. Sizzling Egrets came up with a new
bit for 1995's Mythcon 26 in
Berkeley. SF author Tim Powers was the GoH and the dissing duo reviewed non-existent
movies made from The Stress of Her Regard and Dinner at Deviant's
Palace with the ever-popular "film clip" from Last Call.
Sizzling Egrets appeared at the C.S.
Lewis Centenary in July of 1998 at Wheaton College in Illinois. You had to
be there. Skewered were The Screwtape Letters: The Movie (purportedly
edited together from outtakes of "The Devil's Advocate" with
voice-over by John Cleese...), The Wreck of the Dawn Treader (imagine
"Titanic" meets Reepicheep - oh, the humanity!), and the now infamous
"film clip" from Ed Wood's long lost last film, discovered and
finished by Tim Burton for release in glorious black and white: Malacandra
Attacks!, complete with descending spaceships made of paper plates and
wind-up animals... Definitely you had to be there (or get Arden to show you his
videotape; of course, it shudders real good when the spaceship appears because
he still hasn't learned how to laugh and shoot at the same time...). Lynn was
the treasurer and registrar, which kept her extraordinarily busy. (C.S. Lewis
pen&ink drawing copyright by Patrick Wynne; used with his kind permission).
Then there's the Mythcon food sculptures...
Another joy in Lynn's life is her extended family and a few visits back she was interviewed by her then eleven-year-old nephew, Tyler Reitz. She keeps it on the website for the ongoing joy of embarrassing a handsome young man!
Tyler Times
Lynn Maudlin is a very widely traveled lady. She has been to many different places like England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Israel, Australia, and many other countries. When she travels she is mostly a tourist, but she also visits friends and attends meetings. Her next trip is in November and she is going to England again because she has lots of friends in England. In England she also likes to visit old castles and gardens. The favorite place that she has been to visit is Jerusalem. She loves Jerusalem because that is where Jesus walked the earth.Interview by Tyler Reitz, 10/8/97
To contact Lynn Maudlin by e-mail: lynn AT lynnmaudlin DOT com
Artwork by Pat Wynne, used by permission
Last modified: April 2008