Brian Thomsen

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-06

Brian Michael Thomsen was born April 13, 1959, in New York and raised in Rockaway Beach, Queens, attending Regis High School in Manhattan. He died September 21, 2008, in Brooklyn at age 49, survived by his wife Donna. Thomsen built a long career as an editor and writer in speculative fiction publishing: he was the founding editor of Warner Books' Questar Science Fiction line, later became managing fiction editor at TSR, Inc. in the mid-1990s and publisher of its Periodicals Department, and subsequently worked as a consulting editor for Tor Books. He also collaborated with DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz on Schwartz's autobiography. His tenure at TSR after replacing Mary Kirchoff in 1992 was contentious: he cut author royalties and advances and ended open slush-pile submissions, changes that alienated major contracted authors, including R.A. Salvatore, who withdrew his Drizzt series in response; Thomsen was dismissed when Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR in 1997. As an author he wrote two Forgotten Realms novels published in 1995-1996, co-edited more than eight anthologies with collaborators such as Martin H. Greenberg, and published over thirty short stories across various collections. He received a 1988 Hugo Award nomination for Best Professional Editor, reflecting his significant editorial influence on genre publishing.

Universe(s)

Books

• Once Around the Realms (1995) · Forgotten Realms Expanded Canon
• The Mage in the Iron Mask (1996) · Forgotten Realms Expanded Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 40 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

← All authors