Genre: Literary Fiction

More than a “catch all” for non-genre fiction, this genre is more than “regular” fiction.

Renee Frey, CMO Authors 4 Authors Publishing

As writers, we discuss artistic and literary fiction versus commercial or genre fiction. But what exactly is this difference? Why does it exist?

Defining Literary

For most readers, especially people with degrees in literature, literary is what we would consider the “high art” of writing: the best examples of literary devices such as symbolism, theme, characterization, and others with descriptive language.

This also includes the “classics,” or books that are considered part of the canonical collection that define a group’s cultural literature. If it was part of your reading in education, it’s probably literary.

As there are several different components of literary fiction, let’s look a little closer at each to help understand the genre as a whole.

The Classics

First of all, the idea of canon is already under scrutiny—but let’s not get into that here. Basically, as societies and cultures evolve and change, the literature used to define and exemplify them changes as well. And in a global setting, where there is easier and faster cultural exchange, the aesthetics used to evaluate writing are no longer an aesthetic, but rather a cultural preference. So when I talk about classics in this blog, I’m referring to Western civilization cultures whose primary language is English.

This means if you take into account the diversity present in the United States, for example, you can quickly and easily see how Shakespeare is less relevant than Zora Neale Hurston or Sandra Cisneros.

Overall, something usually becomes a classic if it is the best example or representation of its type. That’s how the best science fiction or fantasy stories become classics. Take Lord of the Rings, for example. While the series is shelved in the science fiction/fantasy section of the bookstore, it is considered a classic because of how it pioneered the genre and established the tropes, traditions, and standards for fantasy.

It helps if subsequent works refer to a work—because then, in order for a reader to really understand the story as a whole, they need knowledge of what preceded it. That’s how Shakespeare, Byron, Dickens, Stevenson, and other authors found their homes as classic writers.

What we consider a “classic” is growing and expanding with the body of literature. And, as mentioned before, as we translate and read other culture’s classics, they often get added to our own canon.

Modern Literary Fiction

For works written more recently, they are usually evaluated on their literary merit and artistry. Only time will tell if the book can stand the test and become a classic. In these cases, the prose quality weighs heavily. To give an example, a Cinderella retelling that is considered commercial would have very accessible language, a definite tie to the original story, and attempt to connect with most readers through real and believable characters. A literary rendition, however, might play around with different points of view, non traditional language and story structure, or otherwise experiment with the form and function of the story.

Another way to think of it would be to compare commercial photography to new art. The two may draw from the exact same subject, but with very different results.

Fiction that does not fall into a specific genre is considered general fiction. That is not the same as literary fiction. While literary fiction will sit on the general fiction shelf, it is the quality and artistic aesthetic of the prose that determines if it is literary or not.

So does that mean that literary fiction is boring?

Quite the opposite! Due to its elevated prose and language, literary fiction often has multiple layers of meaning—-more than you would usually find in commercial fiction. Literary fiction can be fun to analyze and discuss in depth, and often makes a great book for a book club or online discussion.

If you haven’t yet, consider picking up a literary fiction work! It may surprise you!

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Genre: Drama

Where does it come from, and how do we use it as a genre in writing?

Renee Frey, CMO Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Drama has been around basically as long as literature has. Drama first became a genre in Ancient Greece, when plays honoring the god Dionysus were created. Drama comes from the Greek word meaning “to do” or “to act.” Since its inception in ancient times, drama has grown and evolved.

Drama as Literature

When we think of drama, we tend to think of plays, movies, television series, and other visual storytelling mediums. To consider drama as literature, we have to shift gears, and instead of focusing on the representation of the work, focus on the words of the play or other story as written.

If you’ve ever studied Shakespeare, you know this is easier said than done. I can personally attest to how I was instructed to study Shakespeare as an acting student (read the play in groups aloud, watch the movie version, see a production of it) versus as an English literature student (mark out the scansion, highlight allusions, analyze the poetic form and plumb it for meaning).

This is complicated when you take into account the history of plays. In the middle ages, they were seen as immoral. Even in Shakespeare’s time, Puritans sought to close down theatres. The result was an elevation of the written form of a drama over the representation of the drama in a play.

Wait...isn’t that counter-intuitive?

Yes. Good writers are aware of their audience and their medium. When I write written instructions for software, I write very differently than when I am writing a script for a computer-based training course for the same content. If you’ve ever tried to read a play or a screenplay, you probably recognize that it just doesn’t feel the same as watching the representation.

What created this tension was Plato, who further enforced Aristotle’s teachings that plays were vehicles with which to teach moral lessons—and learning said moral lesson did not require the play being performed, merely the communication of the content within. The schism between the production of the play (for the lower classes) versus reading and discussing the content of the work (upper classes) persisted through the European Middle Ages and into the English Renaissance.

So how do I navigate this split?

Reading a play is an experience. Seeing a play is also an experience. Try to do both—use the performance to help you understand the macro vision of the playwright, while supporting the big ideas with specific examples from the text. You can also see how the idea of drama transformed over time…

Moving beyond the play

To a modern audience, drama is human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. This is why you can probably think of several subgenres in the film industry alone: medical dramas, courtroom dramas, crime films, epics...the list goes on. But what all of these have in common are the portrayal of the human experience, inclusive of both the highs and lows of life.

Because of its background in plays, drama still remains linked with plays and other visual medium. We could probably all name a television drama, but naming a drama book would be a bit more difficult. And if you ask the librarian to show you the drama section, she’ll probably walk you to the works of Shakespeare and Moliere. When we think of dramatic themes in traditional literature (not something written to be performed) we generally term it fiction, or categorize it in one of the many genres already discussed in this blog.

Can I write drama?

Yes! Although plays go through a different method of review, they are still critiqued and edited to become the best version of themselves before being published or performed.

Playwrights do staged readings, and get audience and critic feedback to make edits and adjustments to their plays. They may have a close circle who reads the play and advises them, and depending on the situation, may have a producer fund and create a staged reading or workshop to further refine the piece.

Most television writers are groups of writers collaborating, so they work together to refine their ideas and perfect the script before the episode is aired. For all films, the producer has final say, and can request edits and revisions if needed to make a scene or the entire concept “work.”

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Genre: Historical Fiction

What is Historical Fiction?

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Last week we ended our series on speculative fictions. Today starts a new series on Genres. This week’s topic is Historical Fiction.

What is Historical Fiction?

Historical fiction is a genre of literature that reconstructs events from the past in fictional stories, characterized by the inclusion of historical events or historical people, invented scenes and dialogue with authentic and believable details. In other words, the author is trying to be a fly on the wall in the past.

How far in the past do you need to go?

There is no set in stone answer for this question, but there does need to be a noticable difference between the time the story is written, and the time the story takes place. Say, for example, someone wrote a story about 9/11--it’s in too recent history to be considered a historical fiction where as if you set a story only thirty years earlier than that in the ‘70’s it would be considered a historical fiction.

At Authors 4 Authors Publishing, we’ll be considering anything set in the past by fifty years or more a historical fiction.  

Can Historical Fiction be combined with other genres?

It can, and it often is. One of my personal favorites combines historical fiction, fantasy time travel, and romance to make an incredible story: the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Nearly any other genre can be combined with historical fiction as long as you keep the plot believable, even if you stretch that believability a little bit. I mean, who thinks they can really travel through standing stones? But, the story is told in such a way that it incorporates that unbelievable aspect into the laws of the world that Gabaldon has created, and thus makes the plot still believable.

Elements of a Historical Fiction

In any story you tell, the elements will be the same: Plot, Theme, Conflict,  Characters, Dialogue, Setting and World Building. These are all essential to any story, whether it’s a historical fiction or an epic fantasy. No story can survive without them.  

Plot

Luckily, with a historical fiction, your plot is almost written for you, especially if you are focusing on a specific person or even in the past. However, when writing in this genre your plot has to make sense within the time period that it’s set. You would not be able to write a story about Richard III and the lost boys in the Tower of London and have the sixteenth Earl of Warwick Richard Neville, also known as The King Maker, swoop in and save the day to put one of them on the throne unless you are specifically writing in the theoretical history genre.

One of the most important things to remember when you’re writing in this genre is you are there to tell a story within events that have already happened, not rewrite entire histories to tell different events. There’s another genre for that. As Bernard Cornwell said,

The most important thing, the all important thing, is to get the story right. Write, rewrite, rewrite again, and do not worry about anything except story. It is story, story, story. That is your business. Your job is not to educate readers on the finer points of Elizabethan diplomacy or Napoleonic warfare, your job is to divert and amuse people who have had a hard day at work. What will get you published? Not style, not research, but story. Once the story is right, everything else will follow.

Theme and Conflict

There are many different themes you can write about in this genre; loyalty, ambition, revenge, love, temptation, guilt, and so on and so on. All of these themes are part of our daily lives whether you live in the year 2018 or the year 1578. Research will be key in this area. Your theme has to make sense within the time period it’s set. What would love, loyalty and ambition mean in the court of Queen Elizabeth I as opposed to today? According to Anne Sommerset in Ladies in Waiting From the Tudors to the Present Day, it would mean sacrificing the chance to marry the love of your life because your queen said no. These are the types of things you absolutely must consider as you write.

As with the theme, the conflict needs to make sense within the setting. If you’re writing a fifteenth century historical romance about star-crossed lovers, where a widowed noblewoman runs off with a servant when she is expected to either stay chaste or marry a societal equal, that would lead to a believable conflict within the time frame. What would happen to her reputation? What would happen to her children’s reputation? Would they be allowed back into society (and by society, I mean the royal court) without gargantuan recompense? All of those questions would be valid within the time period.

Characters and Dialogue

Your characters have to behave appropriately within the setting they inhabit, whether the author has created them or they were living, breathing people of the past. As mentioned above in Theme, what would it mean to be a person of a certain era?  A serf in a feudalistic twelfth century would not speak, behave, or even think the same way that a knight or even a peer (nobleman) would. It would be intrinsically impossible because of their environment.

The same can be said of the dialogue. A nobleman would speak with an educated vocabulary and tone while someone of lower birth would have a regional dialect. The dialogue will help your reader easily identify who is who and even their social status.

Setting and World Building

Setting and world building go hand in hand. With whatever time period you choose, you have to take your reader out of their own setting and immerse them in the time and place you’re writing in. This can be achieved through world building as well as details from actual history; letting the reader know about social hierarchy, government, family arrangements, customs, etc.

Conclusion

The most important thing while writing a historical fiction is to not rewrite the history you’re focusing on, and to make sure your characters and dialogue are believable for the setting you’ve chosen.

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Speculative Fiction: Paranormal

So there’s fantasy and science fiction...what exactly is paranormal, and why isn’t it just urban fantasy?

Renee Frey, CMO Authors 4 Authors Publishing

As we wrap up our speculative fiction overview, let’s take a closer look at the niche genre of paranormal fiction.

How is Paranormal Fiction a genre?

When I started researching for this blog post, there wasn’t a whole lot of information. There seems to be a consensus that yes, paranormal fiction is its own genre—but there weren’t the robust genre definitions that exist for fantasy or science fiction. Additionally, the genre is grouped with fantasy and science fiction in bookstores and libraries, further blurring the lines. You can read a lot about why this confusion exists in this Refractory article, but for the sake of brevity I’m going to summarize and suggest some new definitions here.

What makes Paranormal Fiction not fantasy or science fiction?

So according to the Oxford English Dictionary, paranormal is:

Designating supposed psychical events and phenomena such as clairvoyance or telekinesis whose operation is outside the scope of the known laws of nature or of normal scientific understanding; of or relating to such phenomena.

Not exactly helpful. However, in the etymology, or history and meaning of parts of the world, para means “parallel or analogous to, yet separate and going beyond.” To me, this suggests that paranormal consists of things that exist in an alternate plane that runs along our own reality.

So for the sake of this blog, let’s decide that paranormal fiction:

• Takes place in our world, not a made up or fantasy world, but at a place where our world joins that parallel world.
• Has a character who is from the parallel world, exists simultaneously in both worlds, or has a power or ability gained from the parallel world.
• Or the plot is driven by what happens when the planes two worlds conjoin or overlap.

If one or more of these elements apply to the story, the story is either paranormal fiction, or paranormal and another genre, such as paranormal romance.

So let’s unpack each of these definitions.

Paranormal Setting

Going back to our original idea of paranormal, it is something that is analogous to, yet separate and beyond. How would we see this in a setting?

• We might see graveyards, religious sites, or other places that are used as gateways to transfer between our world and the parallel world, such as heaven or hell, a spiritual plane, or other form of existence.
• The characters may experience dreams, out of body experiences, or catch a glimpse of the parallel world.

So the story where a character who falls into a well and is transported to the spiritual plane is paranormal, whereas the story where the character falls into a well and is transported to a magical land is fantasy. However, the ambiguity occurs when the world at the other end of the well could be either option, or both. This is one reason why separating paranormal from other genres is difficult.

Paranormal Characters

Let’s look at some examples of how a character might be paranormal.

The character is from a paranormal place.

This is probably the easiest way to determine if a character, and thus the story, is paranormal. If the character is from a place that would count as a paranormal setting, the character is likely paranormal. Angels and demons are good examples of this.

The character exists in both the real world and the paranormal world.

OK, to make this work we do have to be a little creative. In this instance, I would say that characters who were originally from our world, but are now influenced by or swayed by the paranormal world, would fit. An example would be vampires, who were once humans, but were converted to a semi-demon existence. They now exist with one foot in the real world, and one foot in hell. Ghosts, werewolves, and other demi-humans would fall into this description.

As with setting, here is where ambiguity between paranormal and other genres can occur easily. An android or cyborg could come close to meeting this definition, but for the sake of genre classification, we say it doesn’t. Instead, we would look at the presence of as of yet undeveloped technology and classify it as science fiction.

The character has a power or ability gained from a paranormal location.

Like the origin of the character itself, if we understand what makes a setting paranormal, this is relatively easy to extrapolate. Examples would be a seer or prophet, someone with ESP, a medium, or other human characters who can access the paranormal world or plane in some way, even if it’s only communication.

Please note that this would not include characters who claim to have these abilities but do not. Likewise, if the power is in the context of a fantasy setting—for example, the power comes from a deity of the made-up world—that is still a fantasy.

Paranormal Plot

Paranormal plot occurs when the plot point is a direct cause of the intersection of the real world with the paranormal one. An example might be a superstitious day like Friday the 13th or Halloween, where tradition suggests that the barriers between our world and the paranormal one are thin or overlapping, allowing creatures from the other world to influence ours in some way. Even if there is no paranormal setting other than the one alluded to in the conjoining of worlds and no paranormal characters, a plot driven by these conjunctions would be considered paranormal.

That’s still a lot of overlap…

Yes. Even with the definition we used in this post, there are still examples or instances where none of the points are met, but the argument could still be made that the work is paranormal. Take Phantom of the Opera or other gothic novels. While none of these elements are present, it certainly *feels* paranormal. The best I could do in this instance is argue that, since the cast of characters believe the villain is paranormal (a phantom or ghost) that it does count as paranormal, even after as readers we learn that the villain is, in fact, human. It’s another reason why the genre is so difficult to define clearly.

This genre is also open enough that it can overlap with a lot of other genres. The most popular overlap is probably romance, where the otherworldly elements of paranormal add excitement to the romance tropes and structures. Another popular crossover is with urban fantasy, since urban fantasy uses fantasy elements in an urban setting, and let’s face it, it’s far easier to reference and use an existing city and existing character types than to make up an entire world and its urbanization and religious or occult beliefs. The paranormal characters lend themselves well to the urban setting, which already suggests the isolation of high population with few social and community connections, and the ability to blend in despite being abnormal.

Probably my favorite overlap is paranormal and comedy. Ghostbusters and Good Omens are great examples of blending two very unlikely genres together.

This is still a rather open definition. How can I learn more?

The paranormal genre is a spinoff of the Gothic subgenre of Romantic English (British) literature. A great place to start is with the works of Percy Bysshe and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont.

The meeting of this subgenre with the Victorian themes of urbanization, modernization, and industrialization helped further shape urban fiction and the existence of paranormality inside it. For this, reference The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Portrait of Dorian Grey.

These characters have stayed alive in pop culture, and are continuously reinvented in our stories in adherence to the dictate that they exist in the real world. Recent adaptations include Anne Rice’s vampire series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Twilight series.

Tell us what you think!

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Speculative Fiction: Horror

What is horror? What makes it different from other kinds of speculative fiction?

Louise Ross, Just-Us League Writer

Last month, we compared fantasy, science fiction, horror, and paranormal. Today, guest writer Louise Ross will give us a deeper look at Horror.

What is Horror?

In its essence, horror draws on the things we fear, whether that is the masked slasher or the dark hallway. It’s generally defined as speculative fiction, but it does not require a supernatural or fantasy element. Consider Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Tell-Tale Heart which includes nothing extraordinary other than one man’s wild imagination, first about his neighbor’s eye and then about his heart.

It’s a genre, I promise!

Horror can be hard to define sometimes because it is often used as a story element. For instance, last week, I read a romance story. In the story, the male lead character paced in a hospital waiting room, ruminating on the horrible things that could be happening, as the female lead character gave birth during a high-risk pregnancy. The scene played on fear, guilt, and dread. These are part of the same emotions the horror genre pulls on.

The difference between horror as an element and horror as a genre comes from the overall novel. Sometimes a horror novel is defined by facing and overcoming a fear like Harker facing Dracula. Other times, a novel is horror because the main plot device is horror such as Silence of the Lambs which is a mystery told through action and terror.

Evolution of the Horror genre

Horror has been around since the earliest of the plays and can be seen in early adaptations of spoken stories (afterall scarring your friends around a campfire has a long tradition, and fear can be a useful teaching tool). Some of the earliest horror stories are those that involve death, such as ghosts and empty tombs. As an example, consider the storied of death who comes to town spreading plagues or appearing like a skeleton.

Early Themes

Early horror themes also include persecution. In 300-1300 AD, stories which accused individuals of satanism appear, and by 1500-1700 witch stories are so commonly told and believed that there are waves of witch trials and witch burnings.

Our fascination of monsters is not new either. The Greek and Roman myths are full of grotesque beasts which threaten man and the werewolf legends trace back further than Dracula.

A shift in the genre

Around the 18th century, horror shifts. The stories become less about a frightening creature and more about the character’s reactions to the creature. This is the gothic era of horror, which typically featured women trapped in frightening castles.

By the 19th century, the most famous horror authors are creating haunting tales of psychological terror and gruesome monsters that have become icons today. These authors include Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kafka, H.G. Lovecraft, Goethe, and the Brothers Grimm.

By the 20th century, horror developed based upon the changing communication technology: mass distribution, radio, and film. This included news based horror such as the sensationalized serial killers like Jack the Ripper, dime store and pulp horror stories, radio broadcasts such as the infamous War of the Worlds, and film from the slashers to The Shining.

Why we read or write Horror

Fear is a basic human instinct. It can be learned, such as stranger danger; experienced personally, such as the pain of touching a hot stove; or imagined, like the monster under the bed.

Fear tends to create a survival instinct, typically fight, flight or freeze. It heightens our awareness and kick starts adrenaline. These are strong reactions and can be exciting. A word of caution though, fear is only exciting because of the release and resolution. While confronted with the serial killer or the slavering werewolf, fear can be useful or hindering, but once the serial killer or werewolf have passed by, that’s when the excitement and overwhelming emotion become energizing to most people. Therefore in writing or reading horror, it is the moment of relief or the resolution that becomes the factor which determines the story’s effect.

Where is Horror going today?

The current trend in horror is toward blending horror with other genres. Horror romance, horror erotica, dark fantasy, and dark humor are all current genres. In my opinion, anytime there is a development toward blending genres, we also see a movement toward the purist genre as well.

Conclusion

Horror is a genre built off our basic emotional instincts and will adapt overtime.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this guest blog post from one of our friends at Just-Us League Writers. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or on her website. You can also find her latest short story, a fairy tale retelling of Goldilocks in a Just-Us League anthology, A Bit of Magic: A Collection of Fairy Tale Retellings.

Writing from the greater Kansas City area, Louise Ross escapes into writing after her full time career. She aspires to be happy and healthy, and when given the chance, she enjoys writing about everyday people living in fantasy worlds.

Readers aren’t likely to find high court fae or princesses in her work. Outside of writing, Louise quilts, plays computer games, and works; her least favorite thing to do is clean the toilet. Some of her short stories can be found in the Just-Us League anthologies and on her blog.

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Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction

What is science fiction? What makes it different from other kinds of speculative fiction?

Heather Hayden, Rowanwood Publishing, Just-Us League Writer

Two weeks ago, we compared fantasy, science fiction, horror, and paranormal. Today, guest writer Heather Hayden will give us a deeper look at science fiction.

What is science fiction?

Imaginative concepts based around science (or a facsimile thereof) form the heart of this genre. Science fiction may delve into the consequences of advanced technology, space travel, extraterrestrial life, and even time travel (just to name a few), or it may celebrate the possibilities of such scientific endeavors, but science is what binds the story together.

Is science fiction all about the future of technology?

In many, many cases, yes. One of the wonderful things about science fiction is that it allows the reader to explore futures and other worlds where technology has advanced to a distant point—perhaps allowing the eradication of disease, or travel to other planets (or galaxies!), or even immortality.

That’s not to say science fiction always focuses on the distant future, however. Sometimes science fiction considers what might have been, such as how air travel might differ if the Hindenburg disaster hadn’t occurred. It also looks at the present and how our rapidly growing knowledge in computer science, biology, medicine, and other fields is changing life as we know it—or how it might change things if something went perfectly right (or, more often, disastrously wrong).

Does the science have to be based on real science?

All science fiction is in some way relatable to the scientific principles. Although the science of a particular story may not be completely true (for example: as far as we know today, teleportation isn’t viable), there must still be some elements that hold true to current scientific laws or theories. This connection is what makes a story science fiction, rather than another speculative fiction genre such as fantasy.

The human perspective

Beyond imagination, beyond scientific laws, there is one more element that truly makes science fiction what it is. That is the human perspective. Good science fiction not only explores amazing worlds and technologies, but also considers the human side: how scientific discoveries, events, and developments affects humanity either individually or as a whole. I use “human” in the broadest sense here; many wonderful stories have been written from the point-of-view of sentient beings who may be like or unlike us in many fundamental ways—that is, “aliens” (though they might come from or be created on Earth rather than another planet). However, even within those stories, the effects of science are shown, acknowledged, and acted upon.

Subgenres

Science fiction is a broad genre that ranges from “hard” to “soft” science fiction. Under those two labels lie many others, some of which can lean either way depending on the author’s bent.

What makes Science Fiction “Hard” or “Soft”?

Not all science in science fiction is the same. Hard science fiction strives for scientific accuracy, while soft science fiction does not. The latter also tends to involve the social sciences (such as anthropology and psychology), while the former often draws more on the natural sciences (engineering, chemistry, physics, etc.).

For example, if a story focuses on documenting a realistic space flight to Mars, then it is likely hard science fiction. If a story involves telepathic aliens that look like humans and are here to sign an intergalactic peace treaty, then it is likely soft science fiction.

Common Subgenres

Beneath the overarching subgenres of hard and soft science fiction lie many subgenres. Here are a few examples:

• Artificial Intelligence: A personal favorite of mine, artificial intelligence is a common theme in science fiction and often involves the development of a sophisticated machine intelligence capable of reasoning and learning on its own. It can be helpful or hostile, and it may even be portrayed as sentient.
• First Contact: When humanity (or any sentient species) meets an alien race for the first time, there will likely be some conflict involved, whether cultural or otherwise. First contact stories explore the possibilities and consequences of such encounters.
• Galactic Empire: Often the setting for space operas (another science fiction subgenre), galactic empires stretch across vast distances and offer a massive tableau for stories to play out upon. Whether a novel follows a down-on-her-luck space merchant or a rebel spy, there’s always something new to discover at the next destination (be that another planet, an asteroid, or a space station.)
• Steampunk: Always set in an era where steam is still the unifying power for machines, steampunk can involve everything from old-fashioned cars and dirigibles to giant robots and even ray guns.
• Time Travel: A story based around time travel may travel forward, backward, or both, and often involves paradoxes or altered timelines.

Conclusion

Science fiction is an imaginative genre that is in some way based on or inspired by real science. What is your favorite subgenre of science fiction? Let us know on our Facebook page or leave a comment below!

Fueled by chocolate and moonlight, Heather Hayden seeks to bring magic into the world through her stories.

A freelance editor by day, she pours heart and soul into her novels every night, spinning tales of science fiction and fantasy that sing of friendship and hope.

Heather’s publications include Augment, a YA science fiction novel, and several short stories in the JL Anthology series. She is currently working on Upgrade, the sequel to Augment, as well as a gaslamp fantasy series titled Rusted Magic.

You can follow Heather’s writing adventures on her blog, Facebook, or Twitter, or through her newsletter.

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