Distaff Anthology Releases Tomorrow

DISTAFF: NOUN

A staff used in spinning.
Of women and women’s work.
An anthology of women’s stories woven through time and space.

In 2018 a crack team of women sci-fi writers, all members of the sffchronicles community forum, came together to write an anthology. Distaff is the result. Join us as we share stories of people, of science and exploration, and enjoy the words we weave.

Further Info:

Distaff is a Science Fiction Anthology featuring nine short stories by female identifying authors. The anthology began in 2018 on SffChronicles.com, a webforum devoted to the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror genres. Like the site that gave birth to the idea, Distaff encapsulates the broad range of the Science Fiction genre. The anthology shrugs off the negative connotations of the word Distaff and embodies the positive aspects of what women can achieve when they pool their talents. Distaff is entirely ‘of women’s work.’ 

Distaff contains nine stories from new and best-selling authors. 

·       Authors: Susan Boulton, Damaris Browne, Kerry Buchanan, Shellie Horst, Rosie Oliver, Jane O'Reilly, Juliana Spink Mills, E. J. Tett, Jo Zebedee.

·       Publication Date: August 15, 2019

·       Website https://distaffanthology.wordpress.com

·       Available at Amazon: http://hyperurl.co/8vsjzx

·       ISBN 9781074955007 

·       Cover Design: Shellie Horst 

Editing: Rosie Oliver & Samanda R. Primeau

SF Women A-Z Now Live!

If you missed any of my posts during the A-Z Blogathon, now's your chance to catch up. I've compiled and reorganized my posts, added more authors, and formatted and re-formatted everything in triplicate. I had to do three separate versions--an eBook with a full set of links (including Amazon), an eBook without the Amazon links, and a paper copy without links. Trying to keep the text consistent among all of those versions was a big pain, and iBooks kept rejecting my book no matter how many links I removed. But all three versions are now live! Here are the links:

Amazon (US)

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Scribd

Inktera

Createspace

I just published it to Google last night, so I'll update when I have the link for that too.

I had to set the eBook price to $0.99 on Amazon, but everywhere else it's free. Please feel free to report the lower price. I figure the book will gain more visibility that way. Also, please keep your fingers crossed that I get the paper copies in time for WisCon next week. They should arrive the day before I leave.

Increasing Visibilty of Women Authors

Well, it's a bit soon to discuss the 2015 A-Z Blogging Challenge, but I've decided to join it this year. I've been thinking more about visibility of authors, particularly women authors and indie authors. For example, this post, which was shared on the Broad Universe Facebook page, discusses the struggles of a traditionally published female SF/fantasy writer and how more difficult it is to gain attention and sales as a woman writer. That said, I don't think the solution is to adopt a male pseudonym. I am who I am, and I write about what moves me. It may not resonate with every single person in the world--not that that's possible--but I write to reach the people, however few or many, who can grok what I have to say. That can't happen if I hide a fundamental part of my identity. And why should women hide who we are? While I don't track author gender, I probably read more women authors than men, and there are some highly skilled women authors out there. Women create great aliens and worlds, come up with witty dialogue, rock their science and action scenes, and evoke emotion.  Some women writers are more well-known than others, but they all deserve an audience.

Accordingly, I will dedicate my blogging during the month of April 2015 to featuring women authors of science fiction and fantasy. I already have my schedule and list of names drawn up, and there's so much awesomeness out there I couldn't limit myself to twenty-six authors. As of now, I have nearly sixty authors on my schedule, though this may change between now and April. I just have to decide on the format for each author before I start preparing my posts.

In an ideal world, writers would be judged on their merits, not their identities. If this world will not come about from the top down, we must build it from the bottom up, author by author, book by book, reader by reader. Let's build it together.

Women's Visibility in Science Fiction

Yesterday one of my sister Broad Universe members posted a link to this long Tweetversation (Twitter conversation) that had been preserved on Storify. This conversation is about bias in science fiction and fantasy toward women. The triggering incident was an observation that the lists of fantasy works most anticipated for this year are all mostly by white male authors, even though women swept the Nebulas last year. (There are two women on the list--though I haven't seen a link to this list anywhere--who have gender-neutral names.) Some of the women authors in the Tweetversation talk about times when they thought about publishing certain works under a masculine or gender-neutral name. Laura Anne Gilman brings up a good counterpoint on her own blog that it's important for women to be visible in this field, which is why she uses her own name.

One interesting point brought up in the Tweetversation is that the author's gender may be more important to reviewers and bloggers than it is to readers (though I'm sure there are people out there who only read authors from one genre. While I probably do find more female authors to my taste than male ones, as a reader, I focus on the story, not the author.) One of the great things about indie publishing is that the traditional gatekeeper can no longer exclude anyone based on gender, race, sexual orientation, or any other reason. We have ways to connect directly with our audience and don't have to worry about fitting into a narrow profile defined by someone else to reach them. Hopefully indie publishing will become more common and accepted so all authors have an equal chance of being discovered by their readers.

In the meantime, I'm Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, I write science fiction and fantasy, and I'd rather spend my time writing and editing than worrying what people think of my XX chromosomes. They work just fine, thanks. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a first draft to finish and another story to edit.

Resources About Women Writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Jill Schultz, a member of Broad Universe, recently moderated a panel on women writers of science fiction and fantasy at Robercon. She was kind enough to share her list of resources about women writers with me so I could share them on my blog. Further information on Jill and her work is at the end of the list.

Resources About Women Writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy

By Jill Shultz

·         http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/women_sf_writers: Great historical overview of prominent women SF/F writers.

·         http://broaduniverse.org/publications/broad-sheet/a-survey-of-influential-women-in-early-science-fiction-ten-female-writers-born-before-1930-july-2012-bs-r/: Ten of the first influential women SF writers.

·         https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_women_winners.asp: Women who won major awards.

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Women_science_fiction_and_fantasy_writers&pageuntil=Nazarian%2C+Vera%0AVera+Nazarian#mw-pages: 300 women SF/fantasy writers.

·         https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/top-10-fantasy-novels-female-authors-inspired-kill/:   Top Ten fantasy books/series chosen by Thea James, reviewer at The Book Smugglers.

·         http://sfmistressworks.wordpress.com/: Reviews of SF written by women. Also includes lists of award winners and some SF classics.

·         http://iansales.com/2013/07/10/the-list-100-great-science-fiction-stories-by-women/: To counter an anthology by Issac Asimov that only included male authors, Ian Sales put together a list of 100 great stories by women. Twenty are available free online.

·         http://aidanmoher.com/blog/featured-article/2013/05/we-have-always-fought-challenging-the-women-cattle-and-slaves-narrative-by-kameron-hurley/: A Hugo Award-winning collection of essays by Kameron Hurley about the erasure of women in literature.

·         http://www.strangehorizons.com/2014/20140428/2sfcount-a.shtml: “The 2013 SF Count” by Niall Harrison, an analysis of gender representation in reviews.

·         https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2008/sl0810.htm: Susan Elizabeth Lyons tackles the question of gender bias in SF publishing. Links to studies and the results of a questionnaire sent to 31 women writers, including Grand Masters and well-known new writers.

·         http://broaduniverse.org/catalog/: Broad Universe is a nonprofit that promotes women writers of SF, fantasy, and horror. Their catalog features the works of their members.

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Jill Shultz is the author of Angel on the Ropes, a science fiction novel with a Cirque du Soleil vibe. It won the 2014 Readers’ Crown Award in science fiction from RomCon and was honored in three categories in the 2013 Rainbow Book Awards. Jill has also published a wildlife biology book and holds a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. from Antioch. For most of her career she zigzagged between environmental and arts organizations; some of the strange but true consequences can be found on the author page of her website, www.JillShultz.com.

Angel on the Ropes: Amandine Sand is a dazzling trapeze artist who leads a perilous double life. When her two worlds collide, her secret—and her choices—might save her planet. Or ruin it.