So, I totally meant to post this last week, but the week has been NUTS. Like in a good way. The short version is that we launched a new kickstarter for an all female anthology that immediately went gangbusters, funded in 36 hours, 5 days in and we have over 600 backers, and we keep running out of backer rewards. It's a GREAT problem to have.
The anthology is called Athena's Daughters and it's a science fiction and fantasy compilation completely done by women - all the artists, authors, and the editor are women, and all the stories have a female lead.
Science Fiction and Fantasy are wonderful mediums to teach our youth (and our adults), to expand our horizons, and encourage thought and imagination. But I still see a lack of women as leads out there* and I think it's very important for children (and adults!) to have strong** female role models in their lives.
That's what inspired Athena's Daughters.
There are so many awesome stories in this anthology, like Maggie Allen's "Lunar Camp" all about a young girl and her exciting (and life threatening) adventures on the moon, or Sherwood Smith's "Commando Bats", which is all about 70+ year old women who become superheroes (I'd like to point out that one of these women is the survivor of a stroke and wheelchair bound - and she's the most fantastic of them all!).
As for my own story in the anthology, "Millie", it's about a modern day Marine pilot Sara Colón (a helicopter pilot based on an old friend of mine from my first days in the Corps) who has a chance encounter with a very familiar time traveling Aviatrix (have you ever wanted to know what really happened Amelia Earhart?).
You can see the amazing artwork that super talented artist Autumn Frederickson did for my story in the header for this post. I love it!
If you'd like to read an excerpt of my story click here.
If you'd like to listen to an excerpt of my story click here.
Oh, and the introduction to the anthology was written by retired astronaut (and even more awesome, SHE'S A PILOT!) Pam Melroy!
So to say I'm just a little bit excited about this anthology would be a massive understatement.
As I mentioned in the opening, the kickstarter for Athena's Daughters launched a few days ago, and it already funded and we are WELL into the stretch goals. Basically, for only $5 you can get the eBook of Athena's Daughters, 3 novels, 1 album, and 7 short stories, with many more short stories on the way. Again, all that for ONLY $5! Honestly, if you're a voracious reader you can't afford NOT to get in on this. Just sayin!
Even if you're not interested in the project yourself, but think you might have friends or family who might, I'd really appreciate it if you could make a mention of it on your social media or through your email connections. The link to the Kickstarter (order) page is http://tinyurl.com/athenasD.
So in short, awesome women doing awesome things – check it out!
*Yes, I know we have The Hunger Games, Divergant, my own War of the Seasons trilogy, along with many more female led stories out there that all totally rock, but it's still a dearth compared to male leads.
**Strong here doesn't necessarily mean physical strength (though it certainly can!), but ALL kinds of strength. The strength to stand up for what you know is right, the strength to make an unpopular decision, the strength to be a calming voice in a contentious situation, etc.
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Need a copy of one of my books? As it happens you can buy them here.
