Lawrence Watt-Evans is the author of numerous fantasy novels, inc the Ethshar series that started with the...

Lawrence Watt-Evans is the author of numerous fantasy novels, inc the Ethshar series that started with the Misenchanted Sword in 1985 and is now up to twelve novels, with the newest due in June. I'm on his email news list which recently linked an interview with the following tidbit about being an OD&D DM in the mid-70s:

"JCW: There is something I have been dying to know: You’re a fantasy author who started out in the `70s. Did you ever play Dungeons & Dragons?

LWE: Oh, yes, I played D&D in college. Back when the first edition was new — the three booklets in the box. We tended to ignore the official rules and make our own, though. I wound up as my group’s dungeon master; three of our eight players flunked out because they spent their time playing instead of studying. Our dungeon was a mysterious ruin outside the border town of Skelleth (from The Lure of the Basilisk), if that rings any bells.

I should probably make it clear — that was 1975-1977. I wrote the first draft of what would eventually become The Lure of the Basilisk in 1974. The game was based on the story, never the other way around."

(The Lure of the Basilisk was published in 1980)
http://jcwigriff.com/2013/04/30/interview-lawrence-watt-evans/