Wendy N. Wagner

First, a quick update: if you’re in the Portland metro area, then this weekend you should totally stop by StoryCon at the Fort Vancouver Regional Library! There will be great panels and readings from area authors, and the Friends of the Library will be having a big sale, too. Plus, it’s totally free, and I’ll be there! I’m sitting on two panels–Game of Tomes: Binge Reading and the Rise of Series (11:30 in the Klickitat Room) and a little later, The Paranormal as Metaphor (1:30 in the Klickitat Room). I hope I’ll see you there!

Women Destroy All Genres continues apace! If you haven’t yet checked out Women Destroy Fantasy! and Women Destroy Horror!, we’re still posting new material on the website. Of course, for all the awesome destruction (including my essay and printable reading guide), you’ll have to pick up the ebook or print editions. Here are a few more updates about the project:

Women Destroy Science Fiction! was selected Book of Honor for Potlatch 24.

Skiffy & Fanty posted a great review of Women Destroy Fantasy!

and best of all …

We have t-shirts! Check them out at the Lightspeed Zazzle store.

And that’s about it for now. But I can promise plenty more trouble coming soon.

I am getting very, very excited for the November release of Chicks Dig Gaming. It looks jam-packed with cool essays about games (video games, tabletop games, live-action games–you name it!), and it includes a ton of women whose work I adore. Here’s the whole line-up:

• Thank You, Mario, but Our Princess is in Another Castle, by Catherynne M. Valente
• ’Round the World With Nellie Bly, by Rosemary Jones
• Select Hero or Heroine, by Dawn Foran
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Numbers: a Girl, a Rulebook and Arithmetic, by Seanan McGuire
• Look Behind You! A Three-Headed Monkey!, by L.M. Myles
• So You Want to Start a Fight, by Dorothy Ail
• Who in the Hell is Carmen Sandiego?, by Teresa Jusino
• An Interview with Lisa Stevens
• Intuition, Gaming and the Laboratory Scientist, by Kelly Swails
• Saving the Galaxy in Cute Shoes, by Zoe Estrin-Grele
• The Silence of the Games, by Sarah Groenewegen
• Raising Gamers, by Filamena Young
• Game Change, by Linnea Dodson
• The Evolution of a LARPer in Three Acts, by Johanna Mead
• Black Windows, by E. Lily Yu
• Another Puzzle Solved? Professor Layton and the Passive Princess, by Mags L. Halliday
• An Axe Up My Sleeve, by Cheryl Twist
• A Chick Who Doesn’t Dig Games Plays “Portal,” by Fiona Moore
• An Interview with Margaret Weis
• How to Design Games for Boys, by Lynnea Glasser
• The Grace of Dice and Glossy Cardstock, by Lucy A. Snyder
• THAC0 of a Gamer Girl, by Jaleigh Johnson
• Let Us Play, by Lene Taylor
• The Hero in My Story, by Caitlin Sullivan
• When the Stars are Right, by Wendy N. Wagner
• A Vicarious Tale of Getting into Video Games for the Plot, by Hannah Rothman
• We Play to Lose, by Emily Care Boss
• It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, by Amy Hanson
• Saving Throws, by Jody Lynn Nye
• Go for the Eyes, Gamer Girls, Go for the Eyes!, by Sam Maggs
• Looking for Group, by G. Willow Wilson
• Refuge, by Mary Anne Mohanraj
• Leopards at the Wedding: Finding Love in a Glitchy Landscape, by Miriam Oudin
• Blood on the Hull: Gender, Dominion and the Business of Betrayal in “Eve,” by Jen J. Dixon
• Castling, by Racheline Maltese

It looks like the pieces range from game analysis to personal essays to interviews, so I think there’s a ton of great variety. I’m sure you can guess what my essay is about!

Wild black kitten in Eastern Washington

It’s been a fantastic summer, full of camping, gardening, road trips, and lots of silly family activities. But now it’s September, school is back in session, and I’m back to my regular routine.

On the editorial front, I’ve been working hard to get Women Destroy Horror! and Women Destroy Fantasy! off to the publisher. I just learned that they have been formatted and sent to the proofreaders, so I’m feeling good. There’s a lot of great material in these volumes, and I think people will really enjoy them. I’m also really excited because in August Lightspeed took home its first Hugo award! (For pictures of her rocket, check out the September Editorial.) It’s pretty awesome working with this amazing team!

I have been doing some writing, of course. I’m making slow headway on a novel that’s percolating for the last eight months or so; the only thing I can tell you about it is that it has the word “Dogs” in the working title! However, I’ve been working on some other exciting projects that I am dying to talk about … and can’t! Stay tuned. 🙂

Next week on Wednesday the 10th, I’ll be taking part in SFWA’s Pacific Northwest Reading Series, held quarterly at the Kennedy School here in Portland. You can buy yourself some delicious beer and tots and listen to cool writers reading their work and sharing the secrets of the universe. Who wouldn’t want that? For more information, check out the SFWA site.

My mom’s bane: the canny old hen that won’t stay in the chicken yard.

As research for the upcoming Women Destroy Fantasy! special issue of Lightspeed, I’m compiling a list of fantasy novels by women that have won major genre fiction awards. Here’s what I have so far:

World Fantasy Award-winning novels by women

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, by Patricia McKillip (1975)

Watchtower, by Elizabeth A. Lynn (1980)

Thomas the Rhymer, by Ellen Kushner (1991)

Godmother Night, by Rachel Pollack (1997)

The Antelope Wife, by Louise Erdrich (1999)

The Other Wind, by Ursula K. LeGuin (2002)

Ombria in Shadow, by Patricia McKillip (2003)

Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton (2004)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (2005)

Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan (2009)

Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor (2011)

Alif the Unseen, by G. Willow Wilson (2013)

Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel

Harpist in the Wind, by Patricia McKillip (1980)

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1984)

Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin (1991)

Beauty, by Sheri S. Tepper (1992)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J. K. Rowling (2000)

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2004)

The Privilege of the Sword, by Ellen Kushner (2007)

Lavinia, by Ursula K. LeGuin (2009)

Fantasy novels[*] by women that have won the Nebula Award for Best Novel:

The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy (1988)

Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin (1991)

Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2005)

Powers, by Ursula K. LeGuin (2009)

Among Others, by Jo Walton (2012)

[*] If the author attempted to explain the speculative elements of the text via some kind of appeal to science or technology, I called it science fiction and did not include the work.

Works by women writers to receive the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award[*]

The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart (1971)

Red Moon and Black Mountain, by Joy Chant (1972)

The Song of Rhiannon, by Evangeline Walton (1973)

The Hollow Hills, by Mary Stewart (1974)

The Firelings, by Carol Kendall (1983)

When Voiha Wakes, by Joy Chant (1984)

Cards of Grief, by Jane Yolen (1985)

Thomas the Rhymer, by Ellen Kushner (1991)

A Woman of the Iron People, by Eleanor Arnason (1992)

Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen (1993)

The Porcelain Dove, by Delia Sherman (1994)

Something Rich and Strange, by Patricia A. McKillip (1995)

Waking the Moon, by Elizabeth Hand (1996)

The Wood Wife, by Terri Windling (1997)

The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, by A.S. Byatt (1998)

The Innamorati, by Midori Snyder (2001)

The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2002)

Ombria in Shadow, by Patricia A. McKillip (2003)

Sunshine, by Robin McKinley (2004)

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (2005)

Solstice Wood, by Patricia A. McKillip (2007)

Orphan’s Tales, by Catherynne M. Valente (2008)

Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone, by Carol Berg (2009)

Lifelode, by Jo Walton (2010)

Redemption in Indigo, by Karen Lord (2011)

The Uncertain Places, by Lisa Goldstein (2012)

Digger, vols. 1-6, by Ursula Vernon (2013)

[*] From 1971-1992, the Mythopoeic Society made no distinction between adult and youth fiction. In 1992 the Mythopoeic Society began giving two separate awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. I have included only the Adult winners for the time being.

If you’re in the Salem, Oregon, area, stop by the Downtown BookBin on Saturday at 7 pm–I’ll be there reading from my fun adventure novel, Skinwalkers! It should be a blast.

Me, having fun reading at Powell’s. (Sorry it’s a little blurry–it’s an action shot!)

Wow! Tomorrow is World Horror Con! I’ll be there, hanging out, handing out badge ribbons for NIGHTMARE and hanging out with all the fantastic folks. Oh! And catching the art show. If you’re going, be sure to check out Galen Dara’s art that will be on display (and buy a print of her amazing new piece inspired by the antagonist of my novel SKINWALKERS!).

First, I want to give a big thank you to everyone who entered! You all shared amazing stories and I had a great time reading them. From a number of entrants, I selected two winners, one based upon how much I liked their story of an outstanding mother, and one selected purely at random.

Winner #1 is Jonathan, aka Greeniewolf! His story about his remarkable mother made me quite teary. She sounds like a truly amazing woman. Jonathan, I’m sending you an email to get your shipping information.

Winner #2 didn’t give me her name, but I do have her email address, and I’ll be contacting her to get her details.

Don’t forget that all of you have been entered into the Grand Prize drawing, where you could win a copy of not just my novel, Skinwalkers, but eighteen other fantastic books. My fingers are crossed for all of you!

I’m so excited to announce my upcoming reading at Powell’s Books! If you’re an Oregonian, you know that Powell’s is pretty much the mother ship for all things bookish, so you’ll be hanging out with not just me, but some of the coolest book lovers in the Portland area. Join us!

SKINWALKERS reading

7 pm, April 4th

Powell’s Books at Cedar Crossing

3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton

Come out and enjoy an evening of adventure!

My three-part serial, “Winter’s Wolves,” is going up on the Paizo site! The first chapter has already posted, and the next two will be available on 3/12 and 3/19. I really enjoyed creating the characters of Lugh, Irlu, and Grotnir, so I’m very excited to share it.

“Winter’s Wolves” is set about a month before the beginning of Skinwalkers, so it’s a great way to prepare for what you’ll see in the novel!

11 years ago

Edited 3/20/2014: The contest is now closed. I’ll be announcing winners on 3/22. Thanks to everyone who entered!

I’m taking part in Crossing the Streams 2014, an awesome book giveaway contest where readers have the opportunity to win a lot of books from twenty exciting writers of fantasy and science fiction. Here’s how it works.

Each author is running their own book giveaway on their site, and you’re welcome to enter every author’s contest. Two winners will be selected for each site (although each author will have their own criteria for winning–pay attention when you’re signing up!), but every single person who enters the contest will also be entered into the Super Prize Drawing, where you can win the mega-package of a signed book from each and every one of us. That’s right: you could win nineteen amazing books! (I know I said there were twenty writers and nineteen books–two of the authors work together as a team.)

My contest:

You may only enter once. Send an email to wendy at winniewoohoo dot com, with CROSSING THE STREAMS as the subject line. In your email, tell me about a mother you think should be recognized for her awesomeness–maybe she’s your mom, maybe she’s a historical figure, it doesn’t matter. You can write as little as one sentence or as much as a few paragraphs, but please know that by submitting, you consent to let me quote your entry and use your name on my blog. (I’m writing a big post about amazing mothers, and if you say something really great, I want to share it.)

One winner will be selected based upon how interesting your entry is. The other will be chosen totally at random! And of course, every entrant will be entered into the Massive Multi-Author Contest (MMAC?).

Entries must be received between February 19th and March 19th, 2014.

SKINWALKERS Cover - SMALL

What you win:

I’ll be giving away signed copies of Skinwalkers, my new Pathfinder Tales adventure novel. The book isn’t due out until mid- to late-March, so you might have to wait a few weeks before I can actually mail it to you. But don’t worry, you’ll get it!

Why don’t you go check out the other authors who are participating in this great giveaway? I can promise you: they’re all terrific writers with amazing projects out in the world.

Thanks, and good luck!