Yesterday I learned that my friend Jaime Lee Moyer had died. I saw another friend say it on BlueSky, and it took me a very long minute to realize that the Jaime they were talking about was the Jaime that I knew – and even then I didn’t really believe it until I went to CJ Finlay’s very sad post on Facebook.

Jaime’s first book, DELIA’S SHADOW had the same debut year as GENERATION V, so we were both learning the publicity and publication ropes at the same time. We bumped into each other on a lot of the same Twitter threads, and that’s how our friendship started. I remember that I was doing a lot of cons that year and the next, and I read DELIA’S SHADOW on a plane ride. I remember how absolutely jealous I was of her cover.

We talked a lot on Twitter. This was in the good days (those golden-hued hellscape years), and we both had a series running – we never ran into each other at a con, but it was just a scheduling thing. It seemed absolutely inevitable that eventually schedules would align and we would get to have lunch together – which is always kind of the most hilarious thing about WritingTwitter friendship, that eventually you would get to hang out for two hours with the person who you had talked to multiple times a week for years. We even had a group DM with me, Jaime, Stephen Blackmoore, T Frohock, and Lish McBride. It ran for years.

Stephen and I both went back and looked at that group DM since we heard the news, but all of Jaime’s comments on it are gone. She deleted her Twitter account, which made a lot of sense at the time, but now almost everything she ever said to me is just deleted into the ether. I feel like there’s a fairy gold reference which could be made here, which, given that Jaime wrote a whole book about the fey, she would’ve probably liked. (though at the moment, Jaime, I wish you’d taken a less principled stand – I’d rather have your words than a handful of dried leaves)

Jaime had every piece of bad publishing luck you could have. But she never gave up, and just kept writing and pushing. And she was the best friend you could have. No matter how shitty things were going for her with publishing (and, lord, how often were they the worst), she was always genuinely happy when something went well for a friend. No one was happier when you got a publishing contract, or a good break – she was the most enthusiastic cheerleader when things were good, and always there to listen and understand when things were bad.

Nothing was ever easy for Jaime. Not in writing, and not in her life, either. But she was the best. I can’t even count how many times I would be talking with a writing person and they would say, “Oh, do you know Jaime Lee Moyer? She’s the best.” And it was true.

I regret every email I meant to send her but didn’t. I regret every time I thought of inviting her into something and thought, “God, I know she’s got so much shit on her plate. I shouldn’t ask.” I should’ve.

She is gone. She is missed by so many people.

So, if you’ve read this far, do one thing –

Pick up one of her books and give it a read. Put her words into the library of your mind. She left kindness and love behind her, and she also left her work. She was proud of every book she wrote.

There are so many people who will miss Jaime so much. Our kind, deeply funny, undefeated, wonderful friend.