"Vigorously told deceptions and battle scenes." ~Publishers Weekly review of Eolyn

"The characters are at their best when the events engulfing them are at their worst." ~Publishers Weekly review of High Maga

Monday, September 26, 2011

Interview with 1889 Labs and Other News

1889 Labs interviewed me last week.  If you'd like to learn a little about what inspired Eolyn, the challenges of writing a novel, and other fun facts about my life as a writer, please visit the 1889 Labs Blog.

This week is your last chance to register to win a FREE signed copy of Eolyn from Heroines of Fantasy.  Visit their Grand Opening Raffle Web Page to find out more, or just send your name and email address to women.writing.fantasy(at)gmail.com.  The drawing is on October 1.

Also this week on Heroines of Fantasy, Hadley Rille Books editor Eric T. Reynolds writes a guest post about how HRB began publishing fantasy.  Visit Heroines of Fantasy to read more, and while you're at it, feel free to ask Eric questions about small press, editing and publishing in general. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a great week! 

Monday, September 19, 2011

Fantasy: A Love Story

Stop by Heroines of Fantasy to read Terri-Lynne DeFino's great post on keeping the magic alive, and tell us how your love story with fantasy began. 

While you're there, don't forget to register to win your free, signed copy of the novel EOLYN.  Visit our Grand Opening Raffle page for more information, or just send your name and email address to women.writing.fantasy(at)gmail.com, and we will put you in the basket.  The drawing is on October 1, 2011. 

This weekend, I will be at Wordstock Poetry Festival, along with M.C. Chambers, author of SHAPERS' VEIL.  We will be sharing a table and will have copies of our novels and anthologies available for signing and purchase.  In the evening, there will be a bonfire and poetry for all.   This is shaping up to be a really fun event, so I hope to see some of you there!

We now have an anticipated release date for the sequel to EOLYN:  October 2013.  I'll be posting more news about that on this site in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned...

Monday, September 12, 2011

Heroines in Epic Fantasy

Kim Vandervort, author of THE SONG AND THE SORCERESS and THE NORTHERN QUEEN, has posted a wonderful essay on defining the heroine in epic fantasy on our new blog Heroines of Fantasy

Here's a sneak preview:

"The problem with 'traditional' female characters in epic fantasy, as I see it, is that they fall into one of only a few roles: the goodly matron, the healer, the love interest, the witch, the prostitute, and the victim. Sometimes they fulfill more than one of these roles at a time. She’s a witch AND a goodly matron! She’s the prostitute AND the victim AND the love interest! 5x bonus for a character who manages to meet all of the stereotypes at the same time! Unfortunately, she doesn’t play much of a role beyond that prescribed for her by the genre. Our “heroine,” even when she wields a sword like a badass, still swoons over our hero and falls apart like bad toilet paper whenever the going gets tough.


Heads-up, people: these are not real women. In order to write a proper heroine, the author has to respect the characteristics that make women strong and use those to advantage instead of trying to force the heroine to occupy a stale stereotype or squish into the role traditionally occupied by the hero..."

To read more and share your own comments and insights, stop by Heroines of Fantasy

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Heroines of Fantasy launches this week

Our first post for the new blog Heroines of Fantasy is up.  Here's a preview, written in response to this month's theme "Why Fantasy?": 

"...For colleagues who know me through my day job as a biology professor, the revelation that I am also a fantasy author seems all the more puzzling. Why would a scientist write fantasy? I think the perception that this is somehow contradictory stems from our cultural tendency to assume it is the career that defines the person, and not the person who defines her career.

But also, I think we tend to forget that fantasy and science, although very different endeavors, nonetheless respond to very similar needs..."

To read and comment on the full post, visit Heroines of Fantasy

Also on Heroines of Fantasy, register this month to win a free signed copy of Eolyn with our Grand Opening Raffle. The raffle will be held on October 1, 2011.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope to see you at the new site!