Black Speculative Fiction is important to me because I get to see more futures where I would exist and see what amazing things I could do and be.
KIROKAZE
wallacepolsom

romaâ
Jules of Nature
Peter Solarz
Aqua Utopiaď˝ćľˇăŽĺşă§č¨ćśăç´Ąă

NASA
Sweet Seals For You, Always
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
we're not kids anymore.

titsay
occasionally subtle

pixel skylines

Andulka

⣠Chile in a Photography âŁ

tannertan36

styofa doing anything
seen from United Kingdom

seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States

seen from TĂźrkiye

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Singapore

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
@acwonderland
Black Speculative Fiction is important to me because I get to see more futures where I would exist and see what amazing things I could do and be.

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
One more month and Salandrine will be available on BetaBooks. Are you interested in beta-reading? Send me an email at [email protected]! Continue to the newsletter for writing updates, blog posts about writing with ADD, cover art news, and more!
For anyone looking to beta(read) something diverse, original and uplifting: go check out this high fantasy novella Salandrine by Elisa Winther. Also has elements of science fantasy and solarpunk.
AJCâs Talk of the Town: Atlanta writers battle the lack of diversity in books for young adults
Atlanta writers battle the lack of diversity in books for young adults | Talk of the Town via kwout
This New Adult fantasy novel takes place in a desert country built and sustained by mages. Worshipers of a dragon god, the people have found themselves amidst an area where power balances shift, and beliefs are threatened to shatter. As they try to save their way of living, mages. Worshipers of a dragon god, the people have found themselves amidst an area where power balances shift, and beliefs are threatened to shatter. As they try to save their way of living, Salandrine is forced out of the shadows of her elder brother, where she will need to reexamine what she thought were solid rules of logic and justice, while finding the strength in herself to be all she can be.
Salandrine includes:
an original world with lots of solarpunk and arcanepunk elements
a setting where the people are predominantly Black
original fantasy races and species
an autistic main character
a transgender love interest (not going to spoiler who it is )
bi / pan / ace representation amongst the main characters
casual representation for polyamorous relationships
political intrigue
Salandrine is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2018, but you can already add the book to your to-read list on GoodReads!Â
Subscribe to newsletter for updates and free goodies | Website | FB page |
Things people think are satire but arenât:
Jokes against minorities.
Jokes about oppression.
Being intentionally wrong about something.
Offensive humor.
What satire actually is:
Using literary analogies to offend people or systems in power and call attention to the problems caused by those people or systems.Â

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
A PSA for writers who make canonically hearing characters deaf in AUs or hcs:
Deafness/HoH is not a cute trope to increase angst levels. That implies all Deaf peopleâs lives suck. Which is very not true.Â
The debate over implants/hearing aids is complicated and getting an implant is not a â"cureââ for deafness
Many Deaf people do not believe their deafness needs to be cured-itâs what makes them part of the Deaf culture (just like being from a certain race/background doesnât mean you should be ââcuredââ of it)
Why does your Deaf character only have hearing friends? The Deaf AU question that keeps me up at night.Â
Related: Why the fuck would you date somebody who can barely sign? Iâm not saying it doesnât happen but it seems in fic to be the only thing that ever does. Communication is important in a relationship???
Not every Deaf/HoH person is orally (speaking/lip-reading) educated and there are different levels of this skill.Â
OH MY FUCKING GOD YOU CAN NOT LEARN SIGN LANGUAGE IN A WEEK IT TOOK ME OVER THREE YEARS AND I STILL SUCK
You can sign and drive. You can sign when you have a broken wrist. Most Deaf people communicate fine with hearing people that have any willingness to understand them. Stop increasing angst levels with means of stopping communication that donât actually exist.
And once more bc I canât say it enough-deafness is not a disease, a death sentence, a complete shut down on all communication ability, or a thing that needs to be cured. Itâs a culture and a lifestyle. And always do your research before writing about any disability or culture different from your own.
Thanks. â
You can sign one handed.
Deafness is a CULTURE. And like most cultures it has different morals and different customs. So be sure to look them up before you write a story. And remember that things get lost in translation; when I first started hanging out with Deaf people it took me time to understand how their culture works.
Also, American Sign Language is its own language. It is not a direct translation of English. ITâS ITS OWN LANGUAGE. And itâs actually much different than English.
2017 YA Reads by Authors of Color
*As per usual, this list will be updated as more covers are revealedÂ
Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han -Â Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for.But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy, she canât ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. Now Lara Jeanâs the one whoâll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her familyâand possibly the boy she lovesâbehind.Â
Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson - 15-year-old Mary B. Addison, once accused of murdering a baby when she was nine, finds herself pregnant after release to a group home - and the only way to keep the baby is to tell the truth about what really happened six years ago.Â
American Street by Ibi Zobi -Â On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vieâa good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiolaâs mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroitâs west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own. Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?
The Authentics by Abdi Nazemian -Â Daria Esfandyar is Iranian-American and proud of her heritage. Daria and her friends call themselves the Authentics, because they pride themselves on always keeping it real. But in the course of researching a school project, Daria learns something shocking about her past, which launches her on a journey of self-discovery. With infighting among the Authentics, her mother planning an over-the-top sweet sixteen party, and a romance that should be totally off limits, Daria doesnât have time for this identity crisis. As everything in her life is spinning out of controlâcan she figure out how to stay true to herself?
Because of the Sun by Jenny Torres Sanchez - 17-year-old Dani struggles with how to process the ambiguous grief she feels in the aftermath of her motherâs death after moving to New Mexico with an aunt she never met.
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco -Â Teaâs gift for death magic means that she is a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community, but when an older bone witch trains her to become an asha - one who can wield elemental magic - Tea will have to overcome her obstacles and make a powerful choice in the face of danger as dark forces approach.
Keep reading
*adds everything to reading list* đđ
Okay hear me out.
A young adult novel written by a disabled author.
Where the main character gets into an accident and must use a wheelchair.
(And is written fairly accurately as the author is also in a wheelchair.)
There are more disabled characters than you can count.
The ones who arenât disabled are the enemies.
It takes place in an alternate version of the 1950s, at an institution for people with disabilities and superabilities.
You see how the disabilities relate to the superabilities (superpowers).Â
The main character goes through the stages of grief after she realizes that she wonât be able to walk again but she is able to come out of it, not because of a love interest, but because sheâs able to find her own strength. (And hit her mentor in the face with a weight.)
In fact, the main character doesnât have any love interest at all.
None.
You could make the argument that sheâs aromantic/asexual.
And the author would totally support that argument.
But despite not having a love interest, the main character is truly cared for, especially by her gruff mentor with a heart of gold.
Did somebody say found families and father-figure-daughter-figure relationships?
Also thereâs an interracial couple thirty years in the making.Â
And an underground resistance of students with disabilities trying to prove that theyâre stronger than people think.
And in the end, theyâre able to save the day.
And there are a lot of hugs.
And a lot of chocolate milk.
And the main character comes to terms with the fact that her biological family is horrible but sheâs fine with that because sheâs got the gruff mentor with a heart of gold who may or may not be in the CIA and also knew Al Capone.
And nobody dies.
And nobody dies.
And nobody kills themselves because they think that their lives are over now that they are in fact disabled.
Unlike some other books!
Oh and thereâs a pig in a wheelchair.
And itâs all written by a disabled college student who really really needs the money for college and her apartment because apparently life is expensive (who knew?)
And itâs not the best written and itâs not error free but it was written with a lot of heart and a lot of passion in the early hours of the morning because thatâs when the author had free time. But if nothing else, it has amazing disability representation. And a pig in a wheelchair.
Interested?
Well, guess what?
That author is me, that book is mine, that book is published, that book is available for you to buy, that book even comes in a paperback version so that you can hold in your hands a story with disability representation in which none of the characters die or talk about how theyâre a burden and how their lives are over (well, Juniper does once but Ryder knocks some sense into her.)
Itâs called The Defectives and you can buy it here:
https://www.amazon.com/Defectives-Burgandi-Rakoska-ebook/dp/B01G7TTLXE?ie=UTF8&qid=1464304077&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
So if youâre looking for disability representation that doesnât end with death and you want to help out a novice disabled author who really needs the money, please consider buying this book.
If nothing else, please signal boost!
Iâve got a poll in twitter for any writers who also review books. What is the lowest rating youâre willing to give? Reply on the twitter poll or leave a comment here on FB đ
https://twitter.com/winthernovels/status/888458804693798912
Self-Publishing: What it is, Who it's For, And How it Works
Iâve talked about a lot of different things on here, but ironically, one thing I havenât actually really talked about is publishing and publishing options and quite a few of my readers donât actually know much about how the publishing process works. So, for the next few weeks on Mondays, Iâll be blogging about the publishing process. I also have a few guests who will tell us about their experiences publishing.
Publishing Options
If youâve written a novel and want to pursue publication, you really have two main options. You can self-publish or you can publish traditionally. Self-publishing is where you publish the book instead of a publishing house. Traditional publishing is where a publishing house does it. I canât fit the basics of each in this post (heck, I can hardly fit one into one post), so Iâm going to focus on self-publication first.
Self-Publishing
In self-publishing (also known as âindependent publishingâ), you are the one in charge of publishing your book, so everything that has to do with your book is your responsibility.
What the general public doesnât realize is that in traditional publishing, authors have next to no say over things like their book covers and the advertisements and marketing done by the publisher. In self-publishing, you get to be in control of all that. You also get to upload your manuscript (novel) as an ebook straight up onto places like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. Sounds pretty great, right?
But this also leads to some pitfalls, and unfortunately, stigmas in the self-publishing route. If you donât know how to properly format your document into an ebook, or your abilities of cover design come from Paint, or youâre not a very good editor (or you didnât edit at all), you can end up publishing something perfectly crappy. Because anyone who knows how to use the internet can âself-publish,â you see a lot of âbooksâ that need ⌠help. This is why there is a stigma. Luckily, as more time goes on, the stigma gets weaker, and today youâll no longer get (as many) people looking down their noses at you for self-publishing as you did in years ago.
There are some fantastic books out there that are self-published, from authors who have worked extremely hard at getting them right. Self-publishing may be readily accessible, but that doesnât mean that being a successful self-published author is easy. In fact, in some ways itâs harder than getting traditionally publish. Your bookâs success depends on your marketing and business abilities, and you donât have a marketer to back you up.
Many wise self-published authors take advantage of professional services. After they revise and edit their story themselves, they hire a professional editor to edit their manuscripts. If they donât know how to do cover designs (and a good cover takes more than just knowing how to make things look pretty in Photoshop), they hire someone to make a cover. Same with formatting. Keep in mind that these are all expenses that must come out of the writerâs own pocket (different than traditional publishing).
Here are some examples of successful books that have been self-published.
Some genres lend themselves better to self-publishing than others. If you write romance for adults, youâll probably make more as a self-published author. Self-published picture books for kids are harder to sell, because itâs harder for them to reach their intended audience, since self-published picture books are unlikely to be in the library or local bookstore or classroom where most kids are exposed to books. It doesnât mean it canât be done, itâs just very, very difficult. Most all the books you see in those places are traditionally published. You may find the three example above in your local bookstore, but two of those three were later picked up by a traditional publisher. You should be aware that if your dream is to hit all the brick-and-mortar bookstores and end up on their bestseller shelf, self-publishing probably wonât get you there. If your dream is to climb up a bestselling ebook list on Amazon, self-publishing is an option.
Consider Self-Publishing if âŚ
- You are writing a novel that has a very narrow audience.
A traditional publishing house canât make money on an audience that is too narrow, so they probably wonât pick up your novel. Also, youâll make more money by hitting your narrow audience hard yourself, since there will be less book sales and self-publishing will give you a higher percentage of each sale.
- You are writing a very unique novel that doesnât fit into a typical genre.
Traditional publishers want books that can be easily categorized, otherwise they wonât know how to market them or who to market them to, and they are a business and need to make money. If you love your novel that doesnât seem to fit a traditional genre or audience, you might want to self-publish.
- You want absolute, complete control over your novel.
Keep reading

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
anyway something I hate about video games is when they make some assertion about the fictional society not being homophobic and yet the society is still heteronormative like. thatâs not how things work
example: skyrim sexual orientation isnât really talked about at all afaik and every person who can be married can be married with either character gender but like: everything is straight. I havenât played skyrim in a while but like itâs all straight I feel like also thereâs things people say in it that are heteronormative and are in there bc the people creating it didnât see it as a problem or at odds with their apparent homophobia free society and like how can you create a fictional homophobia free society when you ainât free of your real life assumptions. Anyway
Iâve noticed this with misogyny too, like when you go to pick your characterâs gender in dragon age it says something about how men and women are considered equal and there are equal numbers of men and women in the army and in leadership positions etc.
and then you go to actually play the game and the overwhelming majority of the soldiers are male, soldiers are constantly referred to as âmen,â there are characters who will say blatantly misogynistic or sexually aggressive things to you (like, blatant enough that it must be misogynistic on purpose)
and it makes me die
Some of this has to be because the people who made these games are almost exclusively straight white dudes - and while they may have had the intention of being inclusive, they literally cannot imagine what a world without heteronormativity and misogyny would look like. They give us the game mechanics to be a woman warrior or to marry a character of the same gender, but they didnât extend this train of thought to imagine how a society where this was normal would be different from ours.
In Dragon Age, for example, the major world religion is centered on a woman, lead by women, with all-female priestesses. AND YET in everyday life characters still interact as though men are naturally in charge and express surprise at a woman issuing commands. This is directly contradictory and frankly lazy world building to suggest that people raised in a system lead exclusively by women would still somehow end up expecting male leadership, as though sexism was a sort of natural law that would happen in any society. Itâs not. Also, the founding myth of their religion has the original sin as sexual jealousy rather than punishing female sexuality, which would suggest totally different social norms around monogamy, sexual orientation, and the whole idea of promiscuity. Instead theyâre⌠More or less exactly the same as our society, slut-shaming included. This makes no sense!
Itâs a complete failure of imagination, not to mention frustrating and sad.
more book recommendations on my blog The Bookavid
all recs by genre/topic
and books by shira!
Trans | Non-Binary | General LGBTQIA* | Asexuality spectrum
more book recommendations on my blog The Bookavid
all recs by genre/topic
Writing every day: frankly, itâs overrated
Have you ever been talking with a group of writers, and someone says that they write every day? Do you then feel like you are less productive as a writer, because you donât write every day?
Stop.
Most writers, especially those with day jobs, donât write every day. But, if you had a group of 20 writers in front of you, and you polled them, many will claim that they do (especially if the first person in line says yes). Many of them are lying.
It is a misconception that âreal writersâ do write every day. In reality, many writers will write most days of the week, but many more squeeze it in when they can. I swing between those two poles often.
Would I like to write every day? Sure. Do I have time or the mental capacity to write every day? Not a chance.
Here are just a few interruptions to my writing that might sound familiar to you:
My day job
Spending time with my spouse
Working out
Holidays and funerals
Illness
Social engagements and social media
Mental or physical fatigue
Vacations
I will argue that interruptions in my writing flow are actually a GOOD thing. Why? Because on days that I really canât write, but I really want to write, Iâm hungry for writing. The hunger for writing reminds me why I write.
Also, as Iâve said before, everyone is a bad writer some days. Why cram writing into your day when you donât have the time or energy? You will only write badly during those times. That is a waste of time. Youâre just going to have to rewrite what you wrote later.
My advice:
Write when you can. Hold onto your creative flow the best that you can. Finish your first draft as soon as you can. And, never feel like youâre less of a writer for not writing every day.
A.M.
Writing Resources
This is a collection of links to webpages, articles, blogs and books that help with writing. Most of these I have already read and found useful, while others are here because I plan to use them sometime in the future. I will be updating this list every now and then with new links.
Writing Programs (Writing)
yWriter (a tutorial video can be found here)
Scrivener (tutorial videos can be found here)
Yarny
Written Kitten
Write or Die
Writing Programs (Planning & Editing)
Realtime Board
Hemingway Editor
Editsaurus
Websites for Writers
Wattpad
Nanowrimo
Camp Nanowrimo
Books About Writing
The Elements of Style - William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
On Writing - Stephen King (a summary can be found here)
Go Teen Writers - Stephanie Morrill and Jill Williamson
iOS Apps
Pages
A Novel Idea
Hanx Writer
Moleskin Journal
Articles
Story Engineering: The Six Core Competencies
Natasha Lester: How to Write the Beginning of a Book
Veronica Sicoe: The 3 Types of Character Arc
stupidpenney: God, I Love Editing
Cassandra Clare: tips for teen writers
Shanara Phillips: A letter to my younger writing self
nimblesnotebook: Random Writing Tips
Videos
Jenna Moreci: Tips For Writers (playlist)
Katytastic: Writing & Revising! (playlist)
Others
Pinterest (inspiration)
Spotify (writing music)
Pocket (research)
Tumblr
franzelwrites.tumblr.com/tagged/writing
franzelwritesstories.tumblr.com/tagged/writing-help

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
How to write fic for Black characters: a guide for non-Black fans
Donât characterize a Black character as sassy or thuggish, especially when the character in question is can be described in literally ten thousand other ways..
Donât describe Black characters as chocolate, coffee, or any sort of food item.
Donât highlight the race of Black characters (ie, âthe dark manâ or âthe brown womanâ) if you donât highlight the race of white characters.
Think very carefully about that antebellum slavery or Jim Crow AU fic as a backdrop for your romance.
If youâre not fluent with AAVE, donât use it to try to look cool or edgy. You look corny as hell.
Donât use Black characters as a prop for the non-Black characters youâre actually interested in.
Keep âunpopular opinionsâ about racism, Black Lives Matter, and other issues pertinent to Black folks out the mouths of Black characters. We know what the fuck youâre doing with that and need to stop.
Donât assume a Black character likes or hates a certain food, music, or piece of pop culture.
You can make a Black characterâs race pertinent without doing it like this.
Be extremely careful about insinuating that one or more of a Black characterâs physical features are dirty, unclean, or ugly.
Feel free to add more.
Adding moreâŚ
Be wary of making Black characters seem animalistic, uncivilized, or subhuman in comparison to white characters. Watch out for: comparing us to monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees, apes, and other animals.
Words like Negroid, colored/colured, Negro, and the n-word do not belong in the mouths of contemporary characters you want to portray as sympathetic.
Not all Black people are African American.
Africa is not a country but the second-largest continent on earth with some 54 different countries with thousands of ethnic groups and 1,500 to 3,000 languages and dialects.
Resist the urge to make a Black character seem uneducated and ignorant compared to white characters.
Capitalizing Black shows that you recognize that the word unifying people of African descent, particularly the diaspora, should be described using a proper noun.
Please, say âBlack people,â not âblacks.â
Give Black characters the same psychological and moral complexity as white men are given by default.
Make sure that you donât write a Black character as happily subservient to a white character.
Understand and show that you understand that Black characters donât exist to be the caretakers of white characters.
And moreâŚ
Do your own homework instead of expecting, asking, or demanding Black fans to do it.
Before approaching that Black person you admire so much for being so articulate about race issues (this is sarcasm) to beta read your work: 1) make sure itâs something theyâve expressed interest in doing, and 2) you offer something in return for their time and expertise.
Be prepared for fans to have issues with what you came up with and open to suggestions.
Having only one Black character in a story that takes place in a huge city, country, or galaxy looks weird. Really, really weird. Scary weird.
Donât use a Black characterâs death to motivate a white character.
Portray Black characters with complex and multifaceted identities. We are more than just Black. We are also women, LGBT, Jewish, disabled, neurodivergent, immigrants, etc.
There is a huge chasm between hypersexual and desexualized.
Remember: whatâs progressive for a white character is not necessarily progressive for a Black one.
Pros of writing gay relationships:Â
- gay
Cons of writing gay relationships:
- they both have THE SAME FCKIN PRONOUNS SO I CONSTANTLY HAVE TO NAME BOTH CHARACTERS BECAUSE OTHERWISE ITâS IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL WHOâS DOING WHAT OR WHOâS SPEAKING WHO WILL SAVE ME FROM THIS HELL
I CANâT BELIEVE THEREâS A POST ABOUT THIS. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL.
Worst way to deal with this: use epithets (the taller man, the blonde) DO NOT
Best way to deal with this: Use the pronouns a teensy bit more than you maybe feel is sufficient. Leave the fic for two days before editing (i.e. allow yourself to forget it a little). Come back and re-read. If at any point YOU canât tell whoâs doing what to whom, put names in. Leave the rest of the pronouns.
Also, for dialogue: use characterization instead of names. Let it be clear by the things that are said, the way they are said, who is saying them.
Readers are smart, let them infer sometimes. :)