Fantasy – YA Pride

Heroes Like Us
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Heroes Like Us

Archive, Author Guest Blog, New Voices

Heroes Like Us

By Vee|2021-09-11T19:05:04-05:00September 13th, 2021|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, New Voices|Tags: Fantasy, Fat Representation, Representation|

Want to support Elayna Mae Darcy's Queer YA fantasy novel? Consider backing their Kickstarter, which runs through September! by Elayna Mae Darcy Content warning: discussions of fatphobia, homophobia, depression, and anxiety As a kid, I devoured books and fell in love with stories, even though the heroes never looked like me. Fat kids were goofy sidekicks, if they were there at all. Fat teens were never much more than punchlines to cruel jokes. Fat adults were cautionary tales, faceless bodies on TV warning about obesity. No one of my size was ever allowed to fill [...]

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Finding My Queer Self Through Books
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Finding My Queer Self Through Books

Archive, Author Guest Blog

Finding My Queer Self Through Books

By Vee|2020-09-16T01:18:15-05:00September 16th, 2020|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Fantasy, Queer Girls|

by Adrienne Tooley I didn’t come out until 24. I didn’t even start questioning until 23. I was a late bloomer in many senses, furthered by my own obliviousness. I didn’t see queer women in the books I read, the media I consumed, or even, really, in the world around me. I knew they existed, but I didn’t know them, or their feelings, or their journeys. And I was worse off for it. When I met the woman who is now my wife, once I’d done a deep dive and examined myself [...]

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Finding My Way to Queer Fairytales and a Book Deal
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Finding My Way to Queer Fairytales and a Book Deal

Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing

Finding My Way to Queer Fairytales and a Book Deal

By Vee|2020-09-03T21:56:36-05:00September 6th, 2020|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Fantasy, Queer Girls|

by Leslie Vedder I’ve always wanted to be a writer. This has taken a lot of different forms for me over the years. Illustrator/author of stapled together grade-school masterpieces. Closet fanfiction writer. (Only in the sense that I wrote from the closet; my fanfiction was always slash!) Then I got into original work, learning to put the worlds and characters I’d imagined in my head down on paper. My first attempts were mostly epic fantasy stories that hit all the familiar beats I’d read so many times—you know, nine guys go on a [...]

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The Joy of Knowing Yourself
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The Joy of Knowing Yourself

Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing

The Joy of Knowing Yourself

By Vee|2020-08-22T16:03:56-05:00August 28th, 2020|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Asian, Bisexual, Coming Out, Fantasy, Queer Girls|

by Maggie Tokuda-Hall I wrote The Mermaid, The Witch, and The Sea for one kid in particular. Her name is Clare. I met her when she was nine, and I worked in a bookstore. For the first two years I knew her, her parents would bring her into the bookstore where I worked, and would do most of the talking for her. She has a mess of unruly, bright red hair (she is AWARE she looks like the girl from Brave) and was also painfully shy. But then one day a flip I hadn’t touched switched. [...]

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On shelving–and unshelving–the book of my heart
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On shelving–and unshelving–the book of my heart

Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing

On shelving–and unshelving–the book of my heart

By Vee|2020-08-13T21:55:12-05:00August 20th, 2020|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Asian, Fantasy, PoC, publishing, Queer Girls|

by Rebecca Kim Wells In 2015 I reached a major milestone in my writing career: I signed with a literary agent. The book I had written was a dark fairy tale-inspired YA fantasy, drenched with blood and magic and lies and quests. It was also a book featuring a queer main character and romantic relationship. I saw no reason for this to be a problem. It was true that there weren’t that many queer YA books out there (especially not published by major US publishers), but there were some. [...]

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The Path to Publication: Writing the Queer Black Girls of Cinderella Is Dead
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The Path to Publication: Writing the Queer Black Girls of Cinderella Is Dead

Archive, Author Guest Blog

The Path to Publication: Writing the Queer Black Girls of Cinderella Is Dead

By Vee|2020-08-13T20:48:08-05:00August 17th, 2020|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Black, Fantasy, Intersectionality, New Releases, PoC, publishing, Queer Girls, querying|

by Kalynn Bayron I’ve always been a fan of genre fiction. From horror to fantasy to sci-fi. I love all things magical and atmospheric and bone chilling. I’m a writer because I was a reader, first. In those stories I found ghosts, mythical creatures, people with impossible powers, aliens, orcs, fairies, elves, kings and queens. What I didn’t see was Black people or queer people. Until I discovered Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, and Octavia Butler I didn’t see Black women centered and I didn’t see queer people being treated with care and concern, [...]

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Book Review: INKMISTRESS by Audrey Coulthurst

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:08-05:00March 13th, 2018|Categories: Book Club, Book Review|Tags: Bisexual, Fantasy, New Releases, Queer Girls|

Asra is a demigod with a dangerous gift: the ability to dictate the future by writing with her blood. To keep her power secret, she leads a quiet life as a healer on a remote mountain, content to help the people in her care and spend time with Ina, the mortal girl she loves. But Asra’s peaceful life is upended when bandits threaten Ina’s village and the king does nothing to help. Desperate to protect her people, Ina begs Asra for assistance in finding her manifest—the animal she’ll be able to change into as her [...]

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Review: A Harvest of Ripe Figs by Shira Glassman

By Jennifer|2020-03-28T13:40:34-05:00August 16th, 2016|Categories: Book Review|Tags: Fantasy, lesbian, LGBTQIA, New Adult, Non Binary, PoC, Queer Girls, Romance, Trans|

by Jennifer Polish Cover page for A Harvest of Ripe Figs, by Shira Glassman. A red parchment-esque background behind a violin, its bow, and several purple figs, one of which is sliced in half, its lush red insides facing the front. Esther of the Singing Hands is Perach’s Sweetheart, a young and beautiful musician with a Girl Next Door image. When her violin is stolen after a concert in the capital city, she doesn't expect the queen herself to show up, intent upon solving the mystery. But Queen Shulamit--lesbian, intellectual, and mother of the six month [...]

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Interview: Eleanor Herman, author of the Blood of Gods and Royals series

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:35-05:00June 28th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Blogathon 2016, New Releases, Writers on Writing|Tags: asexual, Fantasy, Historical, New Releases, Queer Guys, Speculative|

Empire of Dust by Eleanor Herman In Macedon, war rises like smoke, forbidden romance blooms and ancient magic tempered with rage threatens to turn an empire to dust After winning his first battle, Prince Alexander fights to become the ruler his kingdom demands—but the line between leader and tyrant blurs with each new threat. Meanwhile, Hephaestion, cast aside by Alexander for killing the wrong man, must conceal the devastating secret of a divine prophecy from Katerina even as the two of them are thrust together on a dangerous mission to Egypt. The warrior, Jacob, determined to forget his [...]

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Cover Reveal + Excerpt: Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:41:14-05:00October 17th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Cover Reveal|Tags: Fantasy, Queer Girls|

We're so happy to be hosting the cover reveal for Julia Ember's debut novel Unicorn Tracks. Julia hosted the fantastic Queer YA Scrabble charity event this Summer, and Unicorn Tracks (coming from Harmony Ink Press, April 2016) sounds phenomenal! Along with the cover, we've also got an exclusive excerpt to share with ya'll. :) Read on! After a savage attack drives her from her home, sixteen-year-old Mnemba finds a place in her cousin Tumelo’s successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. Surrounding herself with nature and the mystical animals inhabiting the savannah not only allows Mnemba’s [...]

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