The first week is now over—thank you so much to all of last week’s guests! Here’s a summary of last week in case you missed any of their essays:
- Renay (Lady Business, Fangirl Happy Hour) opened Women in SF&F Month 2018 with a discussion of reading challenges and reading diversely as part of her continuing education. She also introduced the latest version of the list of science fiction and fantasy book recommendations by women including 2017’s submissions—which has now grown to around 2500 titles since she started the project during Women in SF&F Month 2013! If you want to help it continue to grow, you can add up to 10 science fiction and/or fantasy books by women that you read and loved in the last year.
- Cass Morris (From Unseen Fire) examined melding history with fantasy, particularly Roman history since it’s the basis for her new series, and the timelessness of certain questions that consistently crop up time and again—and having had no idea just how resonant some of the themes she wrote in 2011 would be just a few years later during the 2016 US election cycle.
- Kim Wilkins (Daughters of the Storm, The Infernal) wrote about her early experiences with SFF including Star Wars and Tolkien’s books, her first time writing epic fantasy, and wanting stories with a variety of women.
- Peng Shepherd (The Book of M) shared the story of the first book she picked out for herself as a child—a novel that kindled her love of science fiction and fantasy and (literally) introduced her to the magic of books!
- Rowenna Miller (Torn) discussed false perceptions about history, particularly that writing strong, empowered, diverse women in historically-inspired fantasy clashes with “authenticity.”
And now, I’m thrilled to announce this week’s guests:
April 16: R. F. Kuang (The Poppy War)
April 17: Melissa Caruso (The Tethered Mage, The Defiant Heir)
April 18: Ausma Zehanat Khan (The Bloodprint, The Black Khan)
April 19: Jeannette Ng (Under the Pendulum Sun)
April 20: Claire North (84K, Touch, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August)
