Women in SF&F Month: Lynn Flewelling
Apr
20
2012

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Today’s guest is Lynn Flewelling, author of the Nightrunner series and the Tamír trilogy! She has chosen to talk about a rather intriguing topic – women in military roles.

As I mentioned before, I invited some authors this month whose books I plan to read but haven’t yet been able to (sometimes I feel like I talk about the same authors a lot, but this month shouldn’t be limited to just my biases!). Sadly, I haven’t yet read Lynn Flewelling’s books even though many people I know with taste very similar to mine love them, including Memory from Stella Matutina. If Memory loves a book, there is an extremely good chance that I will too – so these are books I really should be reading!

Lynn Flewelling

Women and War In Fantasy

In both my Nightrunner Series and the Tamír trilogy, I put women in military roles, often as generals. The queen of the central country, Skala, is the commander-in-chief of the Skalan military, and leads in the field in time of war, which, in my books, is fairly often.  Actually, I include powerful women in every level of society: merchants, wizards, nobility, courtesan businesswomen, artisans, horse traders—the list goes on.  So it seemed only natural, especially in a society with a divinely ordained line of warrior queens, to include them in the military. While this is common in Skala, it is not in most other countries in my world. In that country equality between the sexes and races is the norm. Inequality comes in the form of classism.

In the Nightrunner series, much of military life is seen through the eyes of Beka Cavish, a young woman who secures a commission to an elite cavalry regiment as a “rider”, and through her bravery, intelligence, and prowess, rises through the ranks over the course of the series to a position of high command.  While she is not the main character of the series, she is often a point-of-view character and strongly impacts the story lines. Early on she and the small unit she first commands gain a reputation as fearless behind-the-lines spies and raiders (based on Moseby’s Raiders in the American Civil War, actually.) Beka is an expert fighter, but often uses her intelligence and wits in equal measure to win the day or know when to retreat.

In my world, girls who aspire to a military career begin training very early, especially in riding, archery, and sword play. In the Tamír trilogy, the main character, a girl who’s transformed into a boy at birth and remains one until puberty, is the rightful but displaced heir to the Skalan throne. As a prince, she is rigorously trained in battle and diplomacy like any noble youth, so by the time she is transformed back into a teenaged girl, she is ready to fight for her birthright at the head of a small army of loyalists.

So, I have women with the same training, arms, armor, and skill set as men, but they are still women and face unique challenges. I must admit, I skim lightly over the issue of menstruation, though that’s certainly a factor for women of fighting age. I leave to the reader’s imagination the issues of cramps and pads. It’s really not the stuff of high fantasy. On the other hand, PMS might come in quite handy in battle. Mine would have.

More pressing is the issue of pregnancy. Women who want to avoid conscription can get pregnant and have a child. Women in battle chance rape by the enemy if captured (or, if you reference today’s military, by their brothers in arms.)  And there is no prohibition against having lovers. After some research, I discovered something called a pessary, a hank of wool tied into a small bundle with ribbon or string and soaked in olive oil or some other historical spermicide or block. One medieval pessary recipe consisted of ground dates, acacia bark, and a touch of honey mixed into a paste. The wool or cloth was then soaked in the mixture and inserted. According the Kathleen London’s “The History of Birth Control “The pessary was the most effective contraceptive device used in ancient times and numerous recipes for pessaries from ancient times are known. Ingredients for pessaries included: a base of crocodile dung (dung was frequently a base), a mixture of honey and natural sodium carbonate forming a kind of gum. All were of a consistency which would melt at body temperature and form an impenetrable covering of the cervix. The use of oil was also suggested by Aristotle and advocated as late as 1931 by birth control advocate Marie Stopes.”

I’ve always wondered if dung as contraceptive was more of a deterrent to sex, rather than a prophylactic . . .  But I digress.  The bottom line in my world is that women have access to birth control, and it’s doubly important to female soldiers.

There are those who will argue that women aren’t emotionally suited to battle, and if you just pulled a milk maid off the farm and handed her a pike, then no, maybe not, but the same could be said of untrained men. My women soldiers are well trained and that comes up in the stories, as well. They do show compassion when they are able, but also have to make tough decisions, and aren’t above reprisals. They are battle trained and soon battle tested. Only the strong and skillful survive.

As with all my characters, I try not to make them anything but human. No Xena Warrior Princesses or Amazons cutting off a breast to improve their archery. They have families, friends, lovers. They get along with some of their male counterparts, and not others, just like in real life, though esprit de corps does play a role in how individual units interact. Male and female soldiers both know triumph and terrible loss, and how they deal with it shapes their character.

I’d just like to close by saying that I am not an advocate of war—quite the opposite—but it was a necessary element for the series. But I don’t glorify it. The characters may show great valor, honor, and deep camaraderie, but war itself is a dirty, brutal, bloody, tragic, business and I don’t gloss over that.

Lynn Flewelling is the author of the Tamir trilogy (The Bone Doll’s Twin, Hidden Warrior, The Oracle’s Queen) and the Nightrunner series (Luck in the Shadows, Stalking Darkness, Traitor’s Moon, Shadows Return, The White Road). Casket of Souls, a new Nightrunner book, will be released on May 29. The first chapter from Casket of Souls is available on the author’s website. You can also read her LiveJournal and  follow her on Twitter.

Casket of Souls by Lynn Flewelling The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
Women in SF&F Month: N. K. Jemisin
Apr
19
2012

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Today’s guest is N. K. Jemisin, one of my favorite newer authors! Her debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, put her on my list of authors whose books I definitely must read. The very first page grabbed my attention, and it kept my attention due to an absorbing storyline, a strong and engaging narrative voice, and interesting characters. I also loved that themes like race, gender, and religion were woven seamlessly into the story. Since then I’ve devoured the rest of her Inheritance trilogy and now I am eagerly anticipating the release of the first book in the Dreamblood duology, The Killing Moon. It’s coming out next month with the sequel, The Shadowed Sun, following close behind with only about a month in between.

I was very excited that N. K. Jemisin agreed to write a post for this month since I think her own blog posts are very thought-provoking and insightful. When I finished reading the guest post she sent me, I thought it was amazing and I’ve read it several times since then. I don’t think I can do it justice by trying to introduce it so I will just insist you read it!

N K Jemisin

Don’t Fear the Unicorn

Hi, my name is Nora, and I am sexist.

(Waits for fellow sexists to respond with “Hi, Nora.” Everyone reading this should be responding, BTW.)

I remember the day I first noticed my own sexism. I was eleven years old. I know this because it was 1983, the year Steven R. Boyett’s novel Ariel came out. I spent most summers in New York with my father back then, and while those were lovely, creativity-filled times — Dad’s a visual artist, I’m a writer; we’d spent entire days just sitting around making stuff up — I also loved to read. Dad would take me to the nearest bookstore and turn me loose, although with a strict limit in place because otherwise I would buy the store. Ariel was one of my first great finds.

I almost didn’t pick it up, though, for one reason: because the original cover had a unicorn on it. Unicorns, I was fairly certain at the time, were girly. They were horses with horns, after all, and I’d spent most of my childhood fighting the tyranny of girly horses. Relatives who’d heard I was into science fiction and fantasy gave me posters of shiny, sparkling horses draped in bright pastels; I hid them under the bed unopened. Teachers at school put sparkly horse stickers on the girls’ perfect attendance charts. (The boys got stickers of cars.) I hated this. At the time I was a dedicated tomboy, because that was the best way I could think of to stick it to all the people who seemed determined to shove me into a pink, sparkly-sticker-covered box labeled GIRL. My friends made cakes in their Holly Hobby ovens; I made mud pies and alchemical concoctions — mostly out of mud too — in my grandmother’s garden. Mom asked me if I wanted to take ballet; I asked for kung fu. (I got ballet.) I asked for a boa constrictor as a pet. I got a cat. (Okay, I liked the cat.)

But I did what I could to reject the GIRL box whenever I could. To that end I’d started reading science fiction — but never fantasy, because fantasy was girly. It was full of horses and sparkly stuff and frufru magicky shenanigans, not hard, rigorous science like FTL and Martians and alien planets that just happen to contain independently-evolved human life.* Fantasy was full of women in scraps of stupid-looking armor, being rescued or having relationships or healing people or something. Science fiction was full of men going places and doing things.

Ariel by Steven Boyett

So I wasn’t going to pick up Ariel because OMG unicorn no. But there was something else on the cover of that book next to the unicorn: a boy.

I remember staring at that book for several seconds of full, total “does not compute” shutdown. My brain just couldn’t handle the paradox. Unicorns equalled girliness. Boys, however, signalled action and adventure and toughness and purpose. Boys don’t do unicorns. Girliness =/= purpose. Danger, Will Robinson, danger.

Then I clearly remember thinking, but I’m a girl.

And that was it. It wasn’t an especially shocking realization, but it was a profound one. In that moment I began to understand: the problem wasn’t that some books were infested with girl cooties; the real problem was my irrational fear of girliness. And myself.

By the way, yeah, it’s totally possible for an eleven-year-old girl to be sexist. You don’t have to be a man to hate women and fear all things feminine. You don’t even have to do it consciously. Living in a sexist society is kind of like living in a sewer; no matter how careful you are, you’re always gonna stink. Most people won’t notice the smell, though, because they’re covered in crap too.

This was my parents’ problem. They’d been trying all along to introduce me to aspects of girliness they felt were positive and empowering, and I’d rejected those. In an ideal world, they would’ve recognized that my own attempts to express my femininity were just as valid as the ones they valued. There’s no logical reason to think horses or cats are any more “for girls” than snakes, after all. But most of us never have that moment when we stop and look around and think about the irrational, hateful crap we’re swimming in.

Thinking is key. We can see the impact of unthinking, unquestioned sexism in every “best of” list that contains no women. In a logical world it would be poor judgment at best, utter stupidity at worst, for anyone to declare something “the best” if they’ve ignored half of what’s out there — but this happens all the time in the fiction world. Thoughtless, unquestioned sexism is also behind the bizarre dynamics of book reviews, which are dominated by men even though the majority of book buyers are women. It’s there whenever someone calls fantasy “soft” and science fiction “hard,” with the implication that these correspond somehow to intrinsic qualities of women and men. It’s there in every call for more “boy books” in children’s fiction to address the fact that boys won’t read books about girls… as if it’s right for boys to be so misogynistic, so young.

And girls, note. Girls also learn to hate and fear themselves, if we’re not careful.

So I bought Ariel, which turned out to be a magnificent book — kickass adventure, lots of purpose and toughness and swords and hang-gliding and postapocalyptic war. Yes, in a book with a unicorn on its cover. But it also contained an incredibly touching love story — yes, in a book with a boy on its cover.

This intrigued me. After that I went on to read other things that, once upon a time, I would never have touched. I read them consciously, intentionally, because it annoyed me that this bizarre fear of girliness had almost made me miss out on something good. Next came more sparkly horse books, like Mercedes Lackey’s Last Herald-Mage trilogy. Science fiction written by women, like Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels and Jane Yolen’s Cards of Grief. (But the first McCaffrey I read was her short story collection called Get Off the Unicorn. Can you guess why?) Science fiction by men that was chock full of girliness (David R. Palmer’s Emergence is a fave). More fantasy novels, by women and by men, which defied my sexist expectations (like C. S. Friedman’s Coldfire trilogy and Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu trilogy). And more. For awhile I even went way to the other end of the continuum, avoiding books that fit my sexist expectations. Didn’t touch Tolkien ’til my mid-twenties, for example. I needed a little positive discrimination to find balance. Now in my doddering old age — as my eleven-year-old self would’ve considered the thirty-nine-year-old me — I’m moving toward the middle. Now I read books because they’re good, not because of who wrote them.

But since I’m still a sexist — hi — I have to be careful. There’s still something within me that equates “good books” with “written by men”. So whenever I acquire new books, I have to think about who wrote them. I have to ask myself whether a book is really good, or whether I’m giving it a pass because I think the author is male. I have to wonder whether I’m judging a bad book more harshly because I think the author is female. I have to stop myself when I pick up books by men, and ask myself when was the last time I read a woman.

And I have to make myself pick up that book with the sparkly unicorn on the cover. I have to remind myself that the unicorn will not hurt me. There is no reason to fear it. In fact, if I’m lucky, it might just turn out to be awesome.

*Sarcasm voice.

N. K. Jemisin is the author of the award-winning Inheritance Trilogy.  THE KILLING MOON, first of her new duology, is coming out in May 2012 from Orbit; read a sample here: http://nkjemisin.com/books/dreamblood/the-killing-moon/

To learn more about N. K. Jemisin, visit her website where you can also find her blog and other thoughtful posts like this one. You can also follow her on Twitter.

The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin
Women in SF&F Month: Shara from Calico Reaction
Apr
18
2012

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Today’s guest is Shara from Calico Reaction, an amazing site with lots of reviews! Calico Reaction can be found on both WordPress and LiveJournal where Shara mostly reviews various types of speculative fiction. She also hosts a book club with one selection per month to discuss. This month’s selection is In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield, and Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh and God’s War by Kameron Hurley are next if you’re interested in reading along.

Calico Reaction is one of my favorite review sites simply because Shara writes fantastic, very thoughtful reviews – and lots of them! They’re very detailed and in-depth, but don’t worry, she will warn you ahead of time if there are spoilers and she always includes a spoiler-free overview.

Please welcome Shara today as she talks about her personal quest to read science fiction written by women and some of the wonderful books she discovered!

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Women writing science fiction used to be a cause near and dear to my heart, for reasons that were obvious anyone who knew me at the time: I was a woman writing a science fiction novel, so it was a moral imperative for me to read the same. And I’m not going to sit here and preen and say I sampled every single female author writing in the SF genre. Heck, I didn’t get around to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkogisan saga, nor Nancy Kress’ Beggars in Spain until 2011, and I’m still working on James Tiptree, Jr! But this quest started in 2006, and I remember all the times I’d go to the bookstore and prowl the science fiction and fantasy shelves for a new-to-me science fiction novel penned by a woman. I remember the frustration and the tiny flame of fury when I was looking for a particular author but couldn’t find her on the shelves (Molly Gloss’ The Dazzle of Day stands out most in my memory, as do Karin Lowachee’s books). I remember the joy of discovering a new author, and I recall how reading any science fiction by a female author was akin to a personal quest: as a woman writing science fiction myself, I wanted to see what other women were doing in the genre. I wanted to prove I could somehow join their ranks. I didn’t have any illusions that I would knock them out of the park or anything, but what I wanted was to fit in.

Why was it so personal? What sparked this feverish desire to read more science fiction written by women?

Because I was told, by a male member of the species (species being a science fiction author) that what I was writing wasn’t science fiction.

And I wanted to prove him wrong.

That particular tale is a long one, but not particularly ugly. In fact, when he saw the omega of my draft, he told me, two and a half years after uttering that horrible, pugilistic phrase, that my science fiction novel would excite readers of Catherine Asaro and Linnea Sinclair. Lovely words, but I don’t believe him. For starters, I’ve read Catherine Asaro. I haven’t read Linnea Sinclair, but I’ve had fans of both read my omega draft, and while they were wonderfully encouraging, I know deep in my marrow that my draft still needs a lot of work.

So what does this have to do with women writing science fiction? With women blogging about science fiction and fantasy?

Because it inspires. No, I’m not saying that I am an inspiration, you silly people. As flattering as that is, I’m not that vain. No, what I’m saying is that I needed to be inspired, and I needed to learn, and the only way I could do that and still keep what I felt was my own unique voice was to see what other women in the genre were doing.

And to see what other women in the genre were doing, I had to read their work.

And in order to read their work, I had to know it existed.

So I browsed the stores. I visited SFF forums and begged for recommendations. And I read book blogs.

And I learned. In learning, I posted my own thoughts on my own blog, just in case there was someone else out there in my shoes, so that they might have an easier time finding female authors to inspire them. But even if that didn’t happen (even if that never DOES happen), at least I know I’ve been promoting some pretty rocking books to my readers, books that I know for a fact some of my readers would’ve never heard of without my review.

What books did I discover on my personal crusade? Why, I’m glad you asked! Let me share them with you! Here are some absolute jewels that I think anyone interested in women in SF should get their hands on. Even if it means you have to order from the evil giant Amazon, or if it means you have to scavenger hunt in as many used bookstores as possible. Please note this list is ONLY science fiction (and a little bit of genre criticism). If I listed all the wonderful fantasy novels penned by women that I’ve discovered, we’d never get out of here.

For genre history and a bit of genre criticism and how all of that relates to women writing SF, you’d be remiss if you didn’t add Justine Larbalestier’s Daughters of Earth and The Battle of Sexes in Science Fiction to your TBR pile. And while you’re at it, get your hands on Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Language of the Night.

Daughters of Earth by Justine Larbalestier The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction by Justine Larbalestier The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin

For the books that made me fall in love with reading science fiction, as opposed to just watching it in film or television, try reading Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

For space opera and/or military SF, check out Karen Lowachee’s Warchild (out of print, but easily my most favorite science fiction novel EVER); Chris Moriarty’s Spin State; and Karen Traviss’ Wess’Har Wars series, which starts with City of Pearl (note: this is not a series to read out of order).

Warchild by Karin Lowachee Spin State by Chris Moriarty City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

For a really fun read, something that’s a cross between the movie Pitch Black and the television show Firefly, you’ve got to get your hands on Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace.

Grimspace by Ann Aguirre Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre

For soft, social SF that deals with so many mind-blowing themes like language and race and gender and the ethics of humanity in a science fictional world, check out anything by Octavia E. Butler (two good gateways for her work are Kindred and Lilith’s Brood), Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, Nicola Griffith’s Slow River, or Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler Slow River by Nicola Griffith The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

Lastly, if you’re looking for SF that takes place right here on Earth, either in history or the near-future, check out Justina Robson’s Mappa Mundi, Mary Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox (which I read twice in one month), or Kathleen Ann Goonan’s In War Times.

Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson In War Times by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Of course, this is barely a starting point if you’re wanting to find rocking science fiction by rocking women. Another trick I used to find women writers I hadn’t heard of was perusing Philip K. Dick Award nominees, and that has always yielded fascinating and interesting results. Never hesitate to try an award-winner or nominee especially if penned by a woman in the genre. You never know what kind of gems you’ll find, and what those gems will lead you to discover.

Women in SF&F Month: Sarah from Bookworm Blues
Apr
17
2012

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Today’s guest is Sarah from Bookworm Blues, one of my favorite SFF book review blogs! If you haven’t been there since last week, check it out since Sarah just got her own domain and a great new look for her site. Plus she put up a wonderful interview with Robert Jackson Bennett, author of The Troupe, and a rather interesting guest post on disability in fantasy by Elspeth Cooper, author of Songs of the Earth.

The main reason I keep coming back to Bookworm Blues again and again is Sarah herself. She writes very honest reviews and doesn’t shy away from being open about why she thinks the way she does about a certain book. Yet she also tends to be respectful toward the books she reviews and mentions the good along with the bad. Also, she’s very friendly, and if you’re not following her on Twitter, you should be!

Sarah wrote a very touching, personal, and introspective post on the issue of women in science fiction and fantasy that perfectly demonstrates exactly why I keep reading her blog. Please give a warm welcome to her!

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Last August I had my first child, a baby girl. She is the light of my life. She is my everything; my entire world wrapped up in a chubby little seven-month ball of perpetual motion. Since the day Fiona was born I’ve been reading to her. Usually I’ll just read whatever I’m book I’m reading out loud. She doesn’t mind. She sits there and watches me, or falls asleep to the sound of my voice. Sometimes I’ll make funny accents and kind of act out the parts in the book I’m reading for her. She’ll laugh. We have a great time. I act like an idiot, but I don’t mind. She’s worth it.

I’m trying to teach my daughter to love to read. I want one of her first memories to involve books. I want her to be as passionate about the written word as I am. I want her to discover new worlds. I would love to read books with her in bed each night while she falls asleep. I want my daughter to always have a book in her backpack, like I did. I hope she has a list of favorite authors and dreams about worlds that haven’t been created yet, and pretends that magic actually exists. I want her to play “once upon a time” games, and act out those stories that start that very same way.

I want Fiona to know that the world is her oyster, that absolutely anything is possible. She’s my little miracle baby. She fought cancer with me while she was in utero. This child has a fire inside her, and an unparalleled determination to exist. She’s only seven months old, but I can already see her stubborn streak and her enthusiasm, and I want her to put it toward something wonderful. I want her to master a craft, because I know she’ll be able to.

I want to always share books with my daughter, and I want my bookshelves to be full of both female and male authors. The sad fact is, when I look at my shelves, 90% of the authors are male and about 10% are female. I have always attributed my penchant for favoring male authors with the fact that I conveniently find more male written books because there are more of them. However, when I really think about it, I realize that I discriminate against my own gender. You see, I tend to think that since I enjoy my fantasy epic, bloody and political and women generally don’t write bloody enough stories for me. I wonder how many people feel the same way. It’s not a thought many are willing to say out loud.

Speculative Fiction has, for many years, been mostly a man’s game. It hasn’t been until fairly recently that women have been entering the fray and making a dent in the market, and a name for themselves. With the genders evening out in the workplace, they are also evening out with the literary field. Yet, I wonder how many people still think that maybe women authors are a little too “soft” for their taste. The fact is, I didn’t even realize I thought that until I sat down to write this. It became obvious that I favor male authors because I’m afraid a female author will be a bit too romantic, a bit too starry eyed with their plots so I naturally gravitate away from them.

Reviewing books is getting me away from these previously held thoughts of mine. I try to review everything publishers send me. This has really gotten me out of my comfort zone, and I’ve encountered a lot of female authors I didn’t previously know about. There are more female epic fantasy and science fiction writers out there than I believed and I enjoy more of them than I thought I would. It took years for women to gain an even hand at the office, and some would argue that they are still fighting for their equal rights. I believe that women in SF&F are still fighting and uphill battle for the same recognition as the men. Perhaps that is unfair, however, because there are more male authors to notice than female.

That brings up another point. Why are there more male authors than female? Not only authors of books, but when you look seriously at the SF&F blogging community, the blogs outside of urban fantasy, those that seriously review epic fantasy and science fiction are mostly male dominated. In fact, in my blogroll I follow only two other female run fantasy and science fiction reviewing blogs. There aren’t many of us out there, and the women that are there often seem to fight an uphill battle for credit. Even I dismiss many female bloggers until they prove that they review something other than vampire books.

This is why I’m exceedingly glad that Kristen is doing a month featuring female authors. Women have a battle to fight and recent events have proved it. For example, with the Hugo Award discussion, not one female run review blog got even a passing mention. That tells me something incredible, that in the vast male dominated SFF blogosphere, female run blogs are a nonissue. We are fewer, so we have to fight harder to be heard above the crowd, but we shouldn’t have to. It’s the same with female authors. They are fewer, so they have to fight harder to be noticed, but they shouldn’t have to. People, like myself, shouldn’t shy away from reading a book written by a woman for whatever reason.

That’s the lesson I am learning, and the lesson I want to teach my daughter. The world is her oyster, but how can I possibly teach her how incredible literature is if I hold some of these beliefs about authors, bloggers and the like? How can I possibly teach her that she can do anything she sets her mind to, if none of my favorite authors are female. You may think I’m overreacting, and perhaps I am drawing some dramatic conclusions here, but then you must see the email I got tonight. It said,

Dear Bookworm Blues,

I recently found your blog and I’m surprised by how much I enjoy your reviews. You are a woman who reads books like a guy. That’s kind of incredible.

You can’t read that and not think there’s a problem.

Women in SF&F Month: Lisa Shearin
Apr
16
2012

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Today Lisa Shearin, author of the Raine Benares series, is talking about the importance of perseverance in writing! Earlier, I mentioned that I wanted to invite some authors I hadn’t talked about here before so my regular readers might discover some new authors. Lisa Shearin is one of those authors, although I’ve had my eye on her books since they’ve been recommended by The Book Smugglers, Tia from Debuts & Reviews, Angie from Angieville, and Felicia Day. With recommendations like that, I can’t imagine not enjoying this series!

Lisa Shearin

If you want to be published, you’ve got to want it bad.

Anyone who’s ever sat down to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard already knows that writing is hard work, it’s lonely work, and a lot of the time it’s unappreciated and misunderstood work.

Some authors are literal overnight successes — they hit pay dirt and even the “big time” with the first book they’ve ever written. We’ve seen their stories — six-figure advances, press coverage out the wazoo; heck, sometimes even Oprah.

Then there’s me — and 99.99% of writers. The first book we have published isn’t our first or second. Mine was my third. For me, it took over 20 years of hard work to get to where I am. I’m grateful for everything I have now.

For the vast majority of writers, success (i.e., reaching the goal of being published), takes a couple of manuscripts that are more than likely stuffed in a closet, before we write something publishable. I’m grateful for the “no, thank yous” I got early in my career. At one writers’ conference, I even thanked one agent for turning me down. From the expression on his face, I’ll bet he hadn’t heard that very often.

After producing something worth publishing, there’s the struggle, the waiting, and the waiting some more to finally land an agent, and then waiting for your agent to sell your precious to a publisher—if you choose to go with the traditional publishing route. But regardless of your choice, you have to do a lot of hard work. There is no easy way. You have to want it so badly that you’re willing to write every day, even when you don’t want to, even when you don’t feel inspired, or even when you’re just too danged tired. You have to write regardless of everything. That’s not to say you shouldn’t take the occasional day off. It’s a good idea, for you and for those who have to live with you.

Writing for publication is kind of like training as a professional athlete. They have to work out every day, training and honing their skills if they want to improve. As a writer, your challenge is to find the time to write, which very often means sacrificing something else you want to do. The writing comes first. Also, when you write, you write alone. Some writers have critique groups; I don’t. It’s just not something that works for me.

Then there’s the biggest problem that most writers encounter: family and friends not taking them or their work seriously. They think that if you haven’t been published, that you’re not a real writer. That’s a load of bullpucky. If you write and work hard at it, you are a real writer regardless of whether you’ve ever signed your name to a publishing contract or not. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise; and if they do, don’t believe them. I always told people that it wasn’t a matter of if I got published, but when.

Keep telling yourselves the same thing. And like me, if you tell yourself often enough, you will believe it. Believing in yourself is half the battle.

Lisa Shearin is the author of the national bestselling fantasy adventure series featuring Raine Benares, a finder of things lost and people missing.  The sixth Raine Benares adventure, All Spell Breaks Loose, will hit bookstore shelves (and cyber eBook shelves) on May 29. To read sample chapters from any of Lisa’s books, visit www.lisashearin.com. And you can follow Lisa on Twitter—@LisaShearin.

 All Spell Breaks Loose  Magic Lost, Trouble Found  Armed & Magical
Women in SF&F Month: Week in Review, Week 3 Guests, and Giveaway
Apr
15
2012

Women in SF&F Month Banner

It’s been another great week for Women in SF&F Month! Today I’m going to round up links to last week’s posts, link to a couple of related sites, and announce next week’s guests. Also, since I just gave away a fantasy book, I’m going to give away a science fiction book this week! (If you did sign up to win Dragon Sword and Wind Child, check your email since I notified the winner earlier today.)

Week In Review

There were some fantastic posts this week! Here’s what happened over the last week in case you missed any of it:

Thanks to all of these week’s guests, who gave us a lot to think about and have added substantially to my already huge wishlist!

There were a couple of sites started recently that I wanted to mention since they’ll be good places to go for finding SFF books written by women:

Week Three Guests

Guests for the third week are:

Lynn Flewelling (Nightrunner series, Tamir trilogy)
N. K. Jemisin (The Inheritance trilogy, the upcoming Dreamblood duology)
Sarah from Bookworm Blues
Shara from Calico Reaction (LiveJournal, WordPress)
Lisa Shearin (Raine Benares series)

Giveaway

Today I am giving away one copy of Parable of the Sower, a post-apocalyptic science fiction book written by Octavia E. Butler. I enjoyed this one very much for both its thoughtfulness and the main character, a young woman who refuses to live in ignorance of the state of the world around her and shows strength in her struggle to survive in it.

About Parable of the Sower:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

When unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe. In a night of fire and death Lauren Olamina, a minister’s young daughter, loses her family and home and ventures out into the unprotected American landscape. But what begins as a flight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny… and the birth of a new faith.

Read an Excerpt from Parable of the Sower

Giveaway Rules: To be entered in the giveaway, fill out the form below. One entry per person and a winner will be randomly selected. This giveaway is open internationally, but to be eligible to win, you must live in a country that qualifies for free shipping from The Book Depository. The giveaway will be open until the end of the day on Saturday, April 21. The winner has 24 hours to respond once contacted via email, and if I don’t hear from them by then a new winner will be chosen (who will also have 24 hours to respond until someone gets back to me with a place to send the book).

Please note email addresses will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner. Once the giveaway is over all the emails will be deleted.

Good luck!

Note: Form has been removed now that the giveaway is over.