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Announcement: The Mazarinette and the Musketeer, by Heather Rose Jones

QSFer Heather Rose Jones has a new free Historical Fantasy story out: In the turbulent France of 1678, Hortense Mancini, Duchesse Mazarine takes on the disguise of a King’s Musketeer to pursue her love affair with Anne Lennard, Countess of Sussex. She crosses paths with a true Musketeer, and with Aphra Behn, English playwright and spy, both seeking to retrieve letters between the kings of France and England that could prove ruinous. Every disguise and plan is threatened by the arrival of a young woman who seeks to gain fame by besting a Musketeer in a duel—and now she has … Read more

Review: “Burning Intuition” by Makenzi Fisk

Genre: Lesbian Paranormal Mystery/Thriller Length: Novel   MINNESOTAN POLICE officer, Erin Ericsson, travels to Canada to catch a criminal that fell through US cracks. Lily is a killer who is just getting started in her killing career—she’s only a teenager. Besides her trusty knife, the same one she stole from her dead mother who died of suspicious circumstances, Lily uses fire to wreck havoc, and instill terror in her victims. No one is safe. Not Erin or Erin’s loved ones. Not her own family. Not even her friends, including the girl she meets in school, and her family. She’s a … Read more

Ana’s Spoons – The Monthly QSF FF Takeover

Ana's Spoons

Welcome to the third monthly celebration of F/F fiction! F/F, by the way, stands for Female/Female (not Fan Fiction) pairings that may or may not be romantic. Today I’d like to kindly ask you to refrain from promoting your own books, friend’s books, publisher, or other services. The goal for today’s discussion is to establish a common ground for future F/F discussions and give new readers a place to start. What was the first F/F speculative fiction book you ever read? Or what was the most influential, and why? Please, as always, keep the discussion focused on F/F only. Also … Read more

Media Crossovers: Sense8

I tripped across this quick article on The LGBT Update regarding the new show Sense8. The article highlights the queer characters and shares a promo video: SENSE8 – A Sci-Fi Series With Leading LGBT Characters (Netflix) Known for their science fiction blockbusters (The Matrix franchise, Cloud Atlas, Jupiter Ascending, etc..), The Wachowski siblings are now taking their epic filmmaking talents to Netflix, in their highly anticipated new sci-fi series Sense8. The global concept of this groundbreaking series surrounds eight strangers, who mysteriously become mentally and physically connected, while being hunted by a unknown organization (which all sounds pretty awesome). Yet … Read more

Strong Female Characters in Spec Fic

Women in sci fi

There’s a long-standing tradition of male dominance in speculative fiction, but especially in Sci Fi. If you look back at the Golden Age sci fi writers, they are, if not all, than at least 95% male. This has shifted in recent years, but there’s still an under-representation of both female authors in mainstream sci fi, fantasy and paranormal (with, of course, some very notable exceptions). And there also seems to be a lack of strong female characters in these genres, lesbian and straight. So my questions to you today: What can we do about this? Are there still factors holding … Read more

The Most Mind-Expanding Lesbian Science Fiction Books

Nicola Griffith

Writer and Editor Nicola Griffith calls out some her favorite lesbian sci fi novels (note – the original post is from 2013): From MP: I was wondering if you would be willing to recommend good lesbian science fiction novels. I find those are hard to come by. I am sure you’ve been asked this before but I haven’t found a post about this in your blog. If I missed it, I apologize. I have finished all the Aud books. I’m starting Slow River. And congrats on becoming an American citizen. Thanks for the congrats. I’ve just got my passport: now … Read more

Lesbian Colony on Mars?

Andrew Sullivan makes the case for women on Mars. I can already see the lesbian plot bunnies proliferating: Last year, Kate Greene and five teammates simulated living conditions on Mars for a NASA-funded project (the experiment actually took place on a volcano in Hawaii). What she noticed while collecting and managing data: Week in and week out, the three female crew members expended less than half the calories of the three male crew members. Less than half! We were all exercising roughly the same amount–at least 45 minutes a day for five consecutive days a week–but our metabolic furnaces were … Read more