Tag: Destroy the Joint

Women Destroy… ALL GENRES! RAAAAAAAAH.

~ emmakosborne ~ 1 Comment

I’ve recently posted about this, but OOH LOOK. NEW THINGS! Apparently the women of the world are not content with destroying JUST science fiction. Of course, we’re in a pretty spectacular situation here – Lightspeed’s kickstarter has raised over $15k to fund their special issue containing a stack of new stories, reprints and flash fiction authored, collaborated and edited by an all-women team of awesome. What’s next? Horror! Fantasy! Maybe getting our hands on some kind of multi-genre lair so that we can all hang out and discuss general geekery? Who knows! THE WORLD IS OURS.

Ahem.

Anyway. If you haven’t kicked in, please do! There are some awesome bundles available in the mix, and every cent thrown their way funds more content for the female genre writers of the world. This is a very good thing.

Clearly this is an exciting time. I absolutely love writing science fiction and fantasy (and also a bit of horror, sometimes, if that’s the mood that takes me) because it is so very much fun to make things up and to explore any and every world that is out there (or hey, worlds that I ENTIRELY MAKE UP ALL BY MYSELF!) I love writing it because I love to think about what’s beyond the here and now. I’m the sort of girl who thinks all the time about  mind controlling drugs, about dwarven caverns that wend and weave under mountains, about blasters and spider-web rope and cosmic warps and engines made from photosynthetic plants. I think about settlement wars within Mars colonies, cursed pocket watches and people who can yank your soul right out of your mouth. There are so many ideas out there to explore, and I love the fact that I can let my brain run rampant during the creative process. I think that my best stories are also tangled up with my heart. I find myself wondering about the people I write. What are they seeking? Which words, when said by a loved one, will tear them to pieces? How do they move past tragedies? Do they find joy? What are they positively overwhelmed by?

Writing science fiction and fantasy and horror and hey, general weird stuff allows me to mix in all of the above and that makes me so very happy. Funding the Lightspeed kickstarter is a small step to making the writing of all female genre writers more visible, more mainstream, more accessible. I’m sure that you’ll agree that this is a very good thing. 

Women Destroy Science Fiction Submission Call

~ emmakosborne ~ 4 Comments

Hark, female writers of the science fiction! Something cool is happening. The illustrious Lightspeed magazine are throwing their doors open to women (and whomever identifies as a woman) for a special issue to come out in the middle of the year. It must also be noted that Lightspeed keeps a gender balance in terms of their regular issues. But, you know, it’s kinda awesome that they’re having a specific issue for women, huh?

If you have something that suits, I encourage you to submit. I have! You can find the details, as well as a wonderfully inspirational message from Christie Yant (the guest editor) right here. Submissions close on February 14th.

And hey, if you don’t have anything ready to go by then, keep writing. Keep submitting. Some claim that women do not (or cannot) write science fiction. Ridiculous. Just look at the ladies out there who have and do destroy the joint. Octavia Butler. Karen Joy Fowler. Lois McMaster Bujold. Charlie Jane Anders. Margaret Atwood, FFS.  Kij Johnson. Kelly Link! Nalo Hopkinson. The wonderful Eleanor Wood. There are also many, many more.

I believe that creative women should all strive to write, strive to publish our work. Every story is important, no matter the genre or where it is accepted. As Virginia Woolf wrote in A Room of One’s Own:

“Literature is open to everybody. I refuse to allow you, Beadle though you are, to turn me off the grass. Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”

Go get ’em, ladies.