Writing in this space, I’ve been pretty clear about my own ambitions. It’s not just that I want to be read by millions of people, I also want to fundamentally change things. I hope to be one of those writers that people point to when they talk about how fantasy fiction has grown and evolved.

As ambitions go, it’s beyond me, really. I knew it was wildly unlikely when I started writing, and it seems more unlikely by the day. Still, it’s the goal that directs the work I want to do.

But a few years ago, I read Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Solitude” and I was humbled and intimidated. Most of the time, when I read an amazing story, I find it inspirational. I want to learn from it and do better. But with that one, I just felt small. Everything in that story just fell together in the right way, and it made me feel like a little boy trying to teach himself to write.

Ursula K. Le Guin passed away today. She was a writer who matched and surpassed all the foolish ambitions I have made for myself, and although all of us pass on, her work will be talked about for years to come. It’s time now to thank her for living the life she led, and for doing the work she did.

She was read by millions. She fundamentally changed things.