Fictional matriarchies, LitHub, and yours truly!

“Why don’t we see more science fiction and fantasy novels set in worlds run by women?” It’s a question I’ve been asking myself ever since I got the idea for my epic fantasy series The Five Queendoms, and today, it’s a question I’m asking on LitHub.

In the process of talking about some potential theories behind the scarcity of matriarchy in speculative fiction, I get to call out some of my favorite recent novels that do incorporate matriarchal societies, like Rebecca Roanhorse’s Black Sun and Samantha Shannon’s Priory of the Orange Tree. Plus I get to cover the whole sub-sub-genre trend where women can only be in charge if most or all of the men get killed off — what’s up with that?

And here’s the kicker:

Some reasons for avoiding matriarchal settings are solid; some are sketchy. But here’s what I hope: I hope no writer out there is avoiding setting their story in a matriarchal society because they think it’s already been done.

Read more here!

my review of Sea of Tranquility in CHIRB!

Just a quick little link — I reviewed Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel, Sea of Tranquility, for the Chicago Review of Books. I liked a lot of it, and it bears some resemblance to her amazing Station Eleven, but it’s also:

far more focused. Station Eleven dipped into multiple characters’ points of view, following both the pandemic’s outbreak and the recovering world several decades on, and Mandel’s writing fully inhabited every character, immersing us in their particular angle on the stricken world. Sea of Tranquility keeps the multifaceted narration style, passing with ease between voices, but narrows the focus to a simpler question: What happened?

Read the full review here.

join a book club discussion of THE NEXT SHIP HOME on Wednesday!

Hi there! Here’s one for the historical fiction fans in the audience — I’ll be interviewing Heather Webb about her fabulous new book THE NEXT SHIP HOME on Wednesday, March 30, at 7:30pm. (The graphic says 7, but I promise, it’s 7:30. Go ahead and click here to sign up.

SCORPICA on Kate Quinn's list of recommendations at BookBub!

If you’ve read the blurbs on the cover of Scorpica you know superstar author Kate Quinn was kind enough to put her stamp of approval on the book, for which I will always be grateful. (The woman gives amaaaazing blurbs.) And this week, her list of recent recommendations appeared at BookBub, with Scorpica high on the list!

Click to read the full list of 11 Beautifully Written Books Recommended By Kate Quinn. Scorpica’s in fabulous company.

name a character and give to a good cause!

Here’s a fun thing I’ve never done before — I’ve put the right to name a character in one of my books up for grabs! It’s part of the Book Aid For Ukraine auction, so you can win something fun and also know your money is going to help somewhere it’s needed. You can bid here.

a little SCORPICA-related roundup!

Remember when I was having trouble blogging because there was just So Much? Three weeks out from SCORPICA’s publication, there’s nearly as much happening, but it’s a different kind of much! I’ve been neglecting the blog, my apologies.

Here’s a little bit of the latest muchness:

• I recommended a Fierce Woman Character To Celebrate (who also happens to be a real woman from history) as part of this roundup at The Young Folks

• I wrote about the particular challenges of writing birth scenes for Writer Unboxed

• I really enjoyed my event at One More Page last night, and you can catch the replay of me reading from SCORPICA, fielding questions, and gesturing a lot in huge sleeves on YouTube

More to come soon, including an opportunity to name a character in my next book!

let's talk about the Eowyn Problem!

I’ve been having a great time writing essays about Scorpica and the wider world of epic fantasy it fits into, and here’s one that’s near and dear to my heart. Have female characters always been part of epic fantasy? Yes, but not always in great numbers, and not always in great ways. For SFBook, I wrote about what happens when a great big epic includes only a handful of women. “Representation isn’t a box to be checked; it’s a conversation, a range of expression, an opportunity to broaden perspective and help an individual work of epic fantasy live up to the genre’s name.”

Read all about it here.

The Big Idea behind SCORPICA!

Ever wondered what inspired me to take a break from historical fiction to kick off the massive endeavor of writing an epic fantasy series set in a matriarchal world called The Five Queendoms? I wrote it all up for you! And you can read it on John Scalzi’s fabulous Whatever blog.

Because a female-default culture wouldn’t be just the opposite of male-default culture, just as matriarchy isn’t just a flipped version of patriarchy. I wanted to read about a society where women’s concerns were primary, leading to not just different models of female power but different family structures, different models of child-rearing, different prejudices and judgments. What would marriage in a culture like that look like? Who might rule them? What gods would form their pantheon?

And as with so many authors, because I couldn’t find the exact book I wanted to read, I ended up writing it.

Read the whole story here.

celebrating some of my favorite fictional queens!

March 1 kicks off Women’s History Month, yay! And SCORPICA has also been out exactly a week. Many thanks for all the support so far — it’s been a real blast to see this book out in the world at last.

Lots of fun things to share still happening, and here’s today’s: I list my Top 10 Fictional Queens for Culturefly.

In fiction, some of the best queens are the worst. What makes a fictional ruler memorable isn’t always what we like to see from real-world monarchs—in fact, the opposite is often true. But it takes more than just an appetite for evil to keep any particular queen from fiction on our minds.

Read about Queen Lucy, Galadriel, Julia Wicker and more here.

Events coming up for SCORPICA!

Hi there! If you’re in the greater DC area, you have two chances to hear me talk about SCORPICA in the coming weeks! These are on my Events page also, but here’s the key info for the locals:

March 2 at 6:30pm — the Eldersburg Branch of CCPL, presented by A Likely Story. Register here.

March 9 at 7pm — One More Page Bookstore, Arlington, VA. Register here.

Hope to see you soon!