Today’s guest is H. M. Long! Her recently released Viking-inspired epic fantasy debut novel, Hall of Smoke, follows a warrior-priestess who is trying to set things right after having failed her goddess—and discovers there’s far more to her world and its deities than she’d been taught. A standalone sequel, Temple of No God, is scheduled for release in January 2022. Creativity in Crisis Hannah (H. M.) Long It’s March 2020. I’m hip-deep in drafting my second book on contract and editing […]

Today’s guest is E. Lily Yu! She received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2012, and her story “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards for Best Short Story that same year. Her short fiction has been published in numerous magazines, including Tor.com, Lightspeed, and Uncanny, and been selected for several “best of” anthologies. On Fragile Waves, her first novel, was released earlier this year. FOUR […]

Women in SF&F Month 2021 is now underway; thank you so much to all of last week’s guests! There will be more guest posts Monday–Friday, following the schedule at the end. But first, here’s what’s been posted so far this month in case you missed any of last week’s essays. All of the guest posts from April 2021 can be found here, and last week’s guest posts were: “The Things I Love” — R.S.A. Garcia (Lex Talionis, “The Sun from […]

Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is poet and fantasy author E. J. Beaton! Her debut novel, The Councillor, is often described as “Machiavellian fantasy” (for more about that classification, see her essay here). The Councillor was recently published in the US, Canada, and internationally and will also be available in Australia on May 18. The Imperfection of Clever Women by E. J. Beaton How clever are women allowed to be in novels? That’s a question no one should need to […]

Today’s Women in SF&F Month guest is R.S.A. Garcia! She received the 2015 Independent Publishing Book Award (IPPY) Silver Medal for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror E-Book for her science fiction mystery novel, Lex Talionis, and her short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies including Abyss & Apex, Devil’s Ways, and Sunspot Jungle: Volume Two. Her short story “The Sun from Both Sides” appears in The Best of World SF: Volume 1, which recently published in the UK and will be released […]

It’s now April, and for the tenth year in a row, this month is dedicated to highlighting some of the many women doing wonderful work in speculative fiction! Starting tomorrow, this blog will be featuring guest posts by women doing work in science fiction and fantasy on weekdays throughout the month. They will be discussing a variety of topics—their inspirations and those works that influenced their paths; creating their stories and characters; the reception of female characters with certain traits, […]