[4] She had been in the Air Force and had been described by her husband as a world-class cook, highly skilled at fishing, and an excellent shot.
[7] In 1969 they lost custody of both children and each were sentenced to a year in jail from separate trials after pleading guilty to child abuse.
[8][9] The couple kept animal cages in their basement, forcing their children into them for long periods of times as punishment, and on the day of their arrest, were caught red-handed in the act of beating their son.
Though the nature of the abuse, the trial and the sentencing were all extensively reported in South Dakota newspapers at the time, these details of the Eddings' life never resurfaced during their later successful joint career as fantasy authors, only reappearing several years after both had died.
It was Lester del Rey who believed that multi-authorships were a problem and that it would be better if David Edding's name alone appeared on the books.