Women Destroy Fantasy!
Women Destroy Fantasy!
There has been a lot of buzz-very much deserved-about Lightspeed’s Women Destroy Science Fiction! issue, which was amazing and huge and full of brilliance. It addressed, head-on, in the best way, the ludicrous idea that women don’t write great science fiction. That argument is finished.
The Women Destroy Fantasy! issue though… people. You need to read this issue too. It may not have quite the controversy behind it, but it’s so good. Cat Rambo is an amazing editor.
It is embarassing for me to say, but I have a little trouble appreciating short fiction. I’m fussy and most magazines aren’t to my taste. (Lightspeed excepted of course. ❤️ Ahem.) Even venues I like will have a story I bounce off now and then. Since it’s a form that draws a lot of variety, that’s not surprising.
Even so, I loved every single story in this issue. Not just liked or appreciated. All-out squealing story-love. This has never happened to me before.
Because Lightspeed was putting out so many issues simultaneously in October-regular Lightspeed, Women Destroy Fantasy!, and Women Destroy Horror! -and I’m an editorial assistant (yay!) I was asked to copyedit the fiction in WDF. This turned out to be unexpectedly hard. In order to copyedit, I need to focus on the technical details, like whether that ellipsis is formatted right, or that comma belongs there, but I kept getting sucked into the stories. Every. Single. Time. So, um, I apologize for any slips there. Totally the authors’ faults for writring such great stuff my fault.
While four stories will be put on the Fantasy website through the month of October, I don’t want anyone to miss the ones that are coming out in the issue, particularly Julia August’s “Drowning in Sky” which amazed me so much when I read it I immediately went and stalked her on Twitter. But if you like audio fiction, it’s also available at Podcastle. So everyone can enjoy it!
We’re halfway through the month now, and the first two stories are up. The first free story was The Scrimshaw and the Scream. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask Kate Hall questions about it afterwards. I’m interested to hear what you all think.
Mirrored from Amberdine.