Fake Writer Girls!
By now, I assume most of you are familiar with the Fake Geek Girl phenomenon, in which women’s geek credentials are repeatedly challenged, because everyone knows girls don’t like geek stuff. (Isn’t that right, Big Bang Theory?) It gets even worse if the woman in question is traditionally attractive, because even if we acknowledge the possibility of the occasional female geek, we all know she has to be ugly and socially maladjusted, right? Fortunately, we have men who tirelessly volunteer their time to challenge and harass these wannabes.
Because do you know what would happen if we let Fake Geek Girls into the inner circle of geekdom? PURE, UNMITIGATED GIRL-COOTIES!
Well let me tell you, Fake Geek Girls have nothing on the Fake Writer Girls. You know the ones I mean. Those women who think they can write stories and books that are just as good and important and serious as the ones written by us men. It’s almost like they don’t even understand that their work is inherently inferior, because GIRLS!
One of the best ways to spot a Fake Writer Girl is by looking for Mary Sues, those unrealistically competent, know-it-all, oh-so-special characters who are the Best at Everything! They’re nothing but silly, estrogen-fueled wish fulfillment fantasies. Like a girl could ever be an active, competent character. Oh, those wacky Fake Writer Girls and their ridiculously super-special heroines. If only they could write realistic, heroic protagonists like Ender Wiggin, James Bond, Eragon, Lazarus Long, Clark Kent, Kvothe Kingkiller, Legolas…
And don’t get me started on how they’re ruining science fiction and fantasy with their romance cooties! Urban fantasy? Paranormal romance? Why don’t they care about the history of our genre? SF/F stories should be about spaceships! and swords! and fighting! and yes, the occasional hooking up, but only when it’s nubile young women throwing themselves at manly protagonists!
It would be nice if these Fake Writer Girls could just stay in the romance section, because we all know romance isn’t a real genre. I mean, sure, romance makes up 55% of all fiction sales, but a real man wouldn’t be caught dead reading that stuff, so it doesn’t count. Besides, ALL ROMANCE NOVELS ARE JUST FORMULAIC, UNIMAGINATIVE HACKWORK! (On a totally unrelated note, I just remembered that I have to write a review of this awesome book I read last week. It’s just like Lord of the Rings, except instead of a ring, it’s a cursed dagger! Brilliantly original stuff.)
You might laugh, but Fake Writer Girls present a real threat to real writers like me, writers who write while also being guys. Just look at this report from VIDA that shows how lady writers are stealing review space from hard-working men! They took 33% of the book reviews in The Atlantic, 36% from Harpers, 26% from the London Review of Books, 19% from the New York Review of Books, and 34% from the New York Times. And they want to take even more review space away from real (i.e., male) authors! Why can’t they be happy getting slightly more than half of the reviews in Romantic Times and leave the rest to us? Why do they have to hurt men’s careers with their Fake Writer Girl Agendas?
Here are just a few known Fake Writer Girls, authors whose work you definitely should not immediately go check out and buy and read and tell all of your friends about.
Please feel free to suggest others in the comments. Because the more you know…
Known Fake Writer Girls
- Jaime Lee Moyer – Wrote a perfectly good book about vengeful ghosts, then ruined it with relationships and romance!
- Seanan McGuire – Prolific and popular. Stole multiple spots on the NYT Bestsellers List from deserving boy authors.
- Nalo Hopkinson – Her first book was Brown Girl in the Ring. Yeah, right. Call me when you write Brown Alpha Male in the Ring, amirite?
- Elizabeth Bear – Not only does she sneak relationship-cooties into her work, I’ve even seen her brag about doing it!
- Laura Anne Gilman – Sure, she’s been an editor as well as a Nebula-nominated author, but she also wrote some books for Luna. Romance! Fake Writer Girl! Unclean!
- Nnedi Okorafor – We all know she’s an award-winning novelist, but she’s also writing a Disney Fairies book. Need I say more?
- Kameron Hurley – Not just a fake writer girl, but a militant fake writer girl who actively blogs about girl stuff like sexism in addition to writing books.
- Mary Robinette Kowal – Her work has been described as Jane Austen with magic. That’s another dead giveaway right there. And if that’s not enough, she also plays with puppets!
- Alethea Kontis – She’s doing fairy tale retellings. Hmph. Fairy tale books are only worth reading if they’re written by a man!
- Tansy Rayner Roberts – That’s right, even Australia has Fake Writer Girls!!!
- Amal El-Mohtar – Yep, Canada too!
- J. V. Jones – Sure, she was writing grimdark fantasy decades ago, but do we really have to mention her when we talk about grimdark fantasy? Can’t we just talk about the men?
Cyndy
October 16, 2013 @ 1:56 pm
Ann Aguirre, Ursula Le Guin, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Heather Brewer, Libba Bray, Anne McCaffrey, ack I’m on a dying phone… Will return with more
Irk
October 16, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
Don’t let her amazing abilities with prose fool you – N.K. Jemisin is a girl too! She writes multicultural fantasy epics so well that I didn’t notice until it was too late!
Misa Buckley
October 16, 2013 @ 2:01 pm
Gini Koch writes digustingly funny alien-on-Earth books, complete with romance cooties. There’s even a baby. Ugh.
Ron Oakes
October 16, 2013 @ 2:06 pm
Another thing Seanan McGuire has done is say that she wouldn’t have one of her characters raped. Horrors.
Patti L.
October 16, 2013 @ 2:06 pm
No Bujold, Norton, Diane Duane, Diana Wynne Jones? No Patricia C. Wrede, Patricia Briggs? Ilona Andrews or Kelley Armstrong? What about Sandra Boynton, who has been warping minds since the children were barely out of their (writer girl mothers) wombs?
P.C. Hodgsell? Mercedes Lackey, Katherine Kurtz, Tanya Huff? Oh, deary, deary me.
Kate R
October 16, 2013 @ 2:09 pm
YES, WHAT PATTI L SAID! All of those wonderful fake writers we should ignore! And let’s not forget Naomi Novik, although her relationships seem to be all about guys bonding with scaly fighting lizards.
And does Ilona Andrews count since she’s half-male?
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 2:10 pm
It’s like she doesn’t even want to be a Real Writer (TM)!
Jen Midkiff
October 16, 2013 @ 2:12 pm
And don’t forget Robin McKinley: retellings of fairy tales, books where the sword-wielding hero IS A GIRL and saves the GUY! Eww, girl cooties everywhere!!
Ron Oakes
October 16, 2013 @ 2:12 pm
Oh, and the list of people I’m compiling as possible GoHs at the San Diego Con I seem to keep ending up running every couple of years currently has six women and only five men (four if you count two writers who hide behind a single name, six if you count a husband who’d probably end up coming along and become a featured guest).
No, I’m not sharing this list, so you’ll never know if you’re on it or not 😉 At least not until an invite comes or doesn’t.
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 2:15 pm
You’re obviously a VICTIM OF THE FAKE WRITER GIRL CONSPIRACY!!!
Lali
October 16, 2013 @ 2:21 pm
And that Rachel Aaron, with her kickass independent self-possessed female characters, or even writing as Rachel Bach, with the temerity to make a WOMAN the hard-nosed mercenary fighter and the dominant personality in her relationships. GAWD.
Emma Michaels
October 16, 2013 @ 2:27 pm
Thank you. Just… Thank you.
mgwa
October 16, 2013 @ 2:37 pm
No Connie Willis or Patricia McKillip?
Michelle Browne
October 16, 2013 @ 2:45 pm
Corinne Kilgore! She and her dirty space ship operas sullied with rich character development and wit. Who does she think she is? I also have to admit that I too am one of these woeful writers. Henceforth I shall write only of Cod Piecington, hero of ages, and gis farmboy sidekick Humble Browsley! Under no circumstances will I continue to write cross-genre, feminist works and dystopic settings with swearing and sex. Off to the kitchen to make sandwiches. Ta for now!
Richard Parks
October 16, 2013 @ 2:51 pm
I know the attitude exists (and you’d have to really not be paying attention to miss it) but I’ve never understood it. Two of my most important early influences were Ursula LeGuin and Andre Norton, and women have been writing much and well within the genre for a long, long time. Denying their importance to the field just doesn’t make sense.
Avilyn
October 16, 2013 @ 2:53 pm
Some of my favorites:
Jane Lindskold – her Wolf series especially (Through Wolf’s Eyes is Book 1)
Kate Forsyth – the Witches of Eileanan series (with strong female protagonists AND villains, oh my!) and the Rhiannon’s Ride series as well.
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Sharing Knife is a great series.
Karen Miller – the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books are fantastic. I haven’t yet finished the follow-up books, Fisherman’s Children series, but what I’ve read so far is also great.
K.E. Mills (shh, don’t tell anyone, but K.E. Mills is secretly Karen Miller, sneaky girls hiding behind initials!) – Her Rogue Agent series, starting with “The Accidental Sorcerer” is phenomenal.
Steve MC
October 16, 2013 @ 3:19 pm
So well put.
The biggest Fake Writer Girl I know of is Courtney Schafer. She thinks she knows science just ’cause she went to Caltech at 16 and has earned the respect of her peers. Like that should mean anything when it comes to the reality of books.
http://courtney-schafer.blogspot.com/2013/06/my-two-cents-on-women-and-sf.html
Ron Oakes
October 16, 2013 @ 3:46 pm
Oh, I’m sure that I am. After all, I rely on my Fake Geek Girl wife to recommend writers a lot.
And, if I hadn’t had to exclude past and future Guests of Honor at San Diego conventions, I’d have to add at least 5 more women to my list.
Danny Adams
October 16, 2013 @ 3:53 pm
Judith Tarr, who also puts ROMANCE into perfectly good fantasy novels!
Oh, and Eugie Foster, who isn’t satisfied just writing about Western-based fantasy, but also has to write about Eastern stuff too.
Sarah M.
October 16, 2013 @ 3:56 pm
More FWGs: Sherwood Smith, Sandra McDonald, Elizabeth Moon, C. J. Cherryh and Julie Czerneda. Fake! Every last one of them! (But really really entertaining. Shucks.)
lkeke35
October 16, 2013 @ 4:10 pm
Ive read, at least, one book from every single woman listed in the post and these comments. May I also include some favorites who should never be spoken of?
Emma Bull
Karen Gravies (is totally the shizz -Nickle!)
Cameron Haley (who writes Inner City UF.)
Ann Leckie
Nancy A. Collins
Paula Guran (Editor)
Kate Griffin
Octavia Butler
Storm Constantine and
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
All persoonal favorites of mine.
lkeke35
October 16, 2013 @ 4:11 pm
My mistake its Karen Traviss.
(darn kindle)
Leslie
October 16, 2013 @ 4:16 pm
Lots of my faves have already been mentioned, but I didn’t see Jacqueline Carey yet.
Sistercoyote
October 16, 2013 @ 4:19 pm
Dru Pagliassotti, who wrote a novel that might or might not be a steampunk mystery romance or it might be a low fantasy mystery or it might be a bunch of other things (and it has sequels coming out!) And who has the nerve to have academic geek cred, too!
And who I will pimp forever and ever anon because she is one of my best friends.
And me, I guess. I don’t know if I REALLY count, since my only publications are two short stories (one very short in Sporty Spec about a virtual baseball game and one co-written with Dru in Magic and Mechanica about a Welsh dragon who (GASP) falls in love with a Roman Steam Engine). But, you know.
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 4:22 pm
By Flying Spaghetti Monster’s meaty balls, THERE ARE MORE FAKE WRITER GIRLS THAN I EVER IMAGINED!!!
Amy Bauer
October 16, 2013 @ 4:33 pm
I am consumed by the awesomeness of the phrase “Flying Spaghetti Monster’s meaty balls.” Thank you for this rant.
Kor
October 16, 2013 @ 4:34 pm
Why has nobody mentioned Robin Hobb yet? Sure it sounds like a manly mans name but its actually a pen name of a nefarious touchy feely woman. She lures you in with storys about Royal plotting, mysterious forgotten and forbidden magic, ship figureheads that come alive and living dragons carved from stone! But she has these unmanly strong female characters that it completely ruined the books for me as I read and reread them all.
Alma Alexander
October 16, 2013 @ 4:34 pm
Can I be one too?
Danny Adams
October 16, 2013 @ 4:36 pm
If you have published you are a FAKE GEEK GIRL, so get used to it! 🙂
Kimber Agonistes
October 16, 2013 @ 4:42 pm
Wen Spencer, who had the audacity to turn our cherished gender roles upside down in A Brother’s Price. Abomination!
Kathryn Sullivan
October 16, 2013 @ 4:43 pm
Tamora Pierce, Janet Kagan, Zenna Henderson, Patricia Wrede, Jody Lynn Nye.
Elizabeth Schechter
October 16, 2013 @ 4:43 pm
C L Moore — Jirel of Joiry can kick Wonder Woman’s butt without breaking a sweat!
A.C Crispin.
Elizabeth Schechter
October 16, 2013 @ 4:45 pm
And.. well… me. My latest novel was not only steampunk romance, it was steampunk EROTIC romance!
Quick, someone find some pearls so I might clutch them in horror!
Necia Phoenix
October 16, 2013 @ 4:46 pm
I see a few of my favs missing so I’ll add them;
Wen Spencer
J.A. Marlow
Lazette Gifford
Valerie Griswald-Ford
the audacity of these ladies! 0.0
Jesi
October 16, 2013 @ 4:47 pm
Tamora Pierce. Not only does she write about girls and women doing competent man-people things, she writes about men who see the women in their lives as people and not just as sex objects and easily breakable. So not only do the women who read her books get ideas, if a MAN reads her books he might end up thinking that women are people. So her books are SUPER DANGEROUS. And her women have relationships that don’t define them, when we all know that the only relationship in REAL books are ones where the woman is subsumed by the man. And some of her women have relationships WITH OTHER WOMEN.
Melissa Robinson
October 16, 2013 @ 4:49 pm
C. J. Cherryh, Sharon Miller, Fiona Patton, Violette Malan, Elizabeth Moon, Kate Elliott, and the list goes on!
Kim Vandervort
October 16, 2013 @ 4:52 pm
Great post! And you know what else? You should just put Hadley Rille Books and all of its authors on the list. A small press that publishes more fake writer girls than any other? That even dares to prefer publishing fantasy, sci-fi and historical fiction by women? Eeewww!
Katie
October 16, 2013 @ 4:56 pm
You know, I do adore Bujold as an author (she’s probably my fave SF author at the moment – no offense, Jim) but I thought the Sharing Knife series was the weakest thing she’s written. If you want a strong SFF novel with a good romance behind it, I’d use Shards of Honor or even Paladin of Souls as better examples.
Katie
October 16, 2013 @ 4:57 pm
Jim, depending on your definition of “genre” and “writing,” just saying that romance makes up 55% of fiction sales isn’t your strongest argument. There is a difference between what is popular and what is a substantial piece of literature. After all, Twinkies are popular, but that doesn’t make them good food.
I’m mostly playing devil’s advocate here, pointing out a potentially weak argument so that you can tighten it up and make a stronger case, since I do think that romance is a legit genre of art. But since you are talking about the ability of women to write “good, important and serious” fiction, I think it would be helpful to clarify whether you are speaking of “good” as defined by consumer popularity or “good” as defined by critical inspection. In other words, the “crafter vs. artisan” debate, only with words instead of beads and macrame.
Angela Fleider
October 16, 2013 @ 5:01 pm
I was going to say Jacqueline Carey! But since you beat me to it, I will instead mention Robin Hobb.
Debbie Rice
October 16, 2013 @ 5:02 pm
C.J. Cherryh, Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan, Sara Douglass, A.C. Crispin, Katherine Kurtz, and Kristin Britain.
Jess
October 16, 2013 @ 5:02 pm
Seconded NK Jemisin!!
Katy
October 16, 2013 @ 5:04 pm
Jacqueline Carey, who happens to write a bloody wicked war, by the way. And Melissa McPhail.
Mac
October 16, 2013 @ 5:05 pm
And down with Joan Slonczewski! Biology isn’t REAL science, HARD SWEATY BULGING MANLY science, so her one-celled-alien civilizations are obviously not science fiction. Not HARD science fiction, anyway. Why, her characters negotiate over things with diplomacy! And gender is not set in stone!! Why, she might as well be Ursula Le Guin, with that rainbow-flutey anthropology business. *shudder*
Juliette Wade
October 16, 2013 @ 5:07 pm
I’ll second everyone above. Off the top of my head I’d list N.K.Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Ursula LeGuin, Diana Wynne Jones, Diana Gabaldon, Anne McCaffrey, Deborah J. Ross, Lillian Csernica, Janice Hardy…
Yeah, and I’m doing this thing, too.
Elizabeth Schechter
October 16, 2013 @ 5:07 pm
Pride and Prejudice.
Simple genre romance? Or substantial piece of literature? Defend your position. Cite your sources in proper MLS format.
Julia Blackwell
October 16, 2013 @ 5:12 pm
Must nominate Liz Williams for fake girl writerhood Love her work
Rowan Peacock
October 16, 2013 @ 5:14 pm
Jacqueline Carey!!!
Serge Broom
October 16, 2013 @ 5:17 pm
“…Mary Robinette Kowal – Her work has been described as Jane Austen with magic. That’s another dead giveaway right there. And if that’s not enough, she also plays with puppets!…”
Not only that, she offers to let you play with them.
Christine H
October 16, 2013 @ 5:20 pm
I would like to submit my vote for Jacqueline Carey – who DARES to use her romance and sex scenes to further her plot! Madness.
Athene Numphe
October 16, 2013 @ 5:22 pm
I see that you’ve left C.S. Friedman off the list. Don’t let the initials fool you into thinking she is a gent, she is a Fake Writer Girl.
Evie Manieri
October 16, 2013 @ 5:25 pm
Don’t forget that the only reason we get book deals is because of BLATANT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION by RADICAL FEMINIST EDITORS. And if you’re a woman AND a person of color, then you’re just the luckiest person ever, because publishers are falling over themselves to publish you. If you’re a white man, then the odds are really stacked against you.
Avilyn
October 16, 2013 @ 5:31 pm
Are those Fantasy or Sci-Fi? My understanding was that a lot of her other work is Sci-Fi, which I’m not really into (except for Star Wars, and I claim that as honorary Fantasy).
Line_J
October 16, 2013 @ 5:31 pm
In all the writerly goodness mentioned before I don’t think I saw Anne Bishop, Laurie J Marks or Elizabeth Moon,all wonderful examples of fake girl writing to make a reader swoon.
Greta van der Rol
October 16, 2013 @ 5:33 pm
Linnea Sinclair. One of her books has just made the movies. But check out her Games of Command. Rockin’, rollin’ space opera. With (ahem) a romance with a cyborg.
Jennie
October 16, 2013 @ 5:34 pm
Many of the Fake Writer Girls below have the nerve! to corrupt our children, too:
JK Rowling
Susan Cooper
Veronica Roth
Lynn Flewling
Patricia Briggs
Justine Larbalestier
Suzanne Collins
Madeleine L’Engle
CE Murphy
Megan Whalen Turner
Kristin Cashore
Marjorie Liu (who has the nerve! to also invade graphic novels)
Sally
October 16, 2013 @ 5:35 pm
And don’t forget another one of those fake writer girls hiding behind initials: J.D. Robb.
Okay, sure, it’s gritty murder mystery set in a near-future that has flying cars and androids and space habitats after a war that nearly destroyed civilization — but the hero is a WOMAN! Who has other WOMAN friends! And they’re all competent! And huge chunks of the pages are FULL of that ICKY ROMANCE. Men and women both worry about RELATIONSHIPS.
Why, I hear tell this lady even writes paranormal romance and just plain modern romance under another name!!!
Disgraceful.
Serge Broom
October 16, 2013 @ 5:39 pm
Madeleine Robins…
M.K.Hobson…
Serge Broom
October 16, 2013 @ 5:41 pm
The horror. The HORROR!
Kristen Blount
October 16, 2013 @ 5:41 pm
HA! Just spent the weekend at the Sirens Conference, where grrll cooties abound. Awesome guests of honors included Alaya Dawn Johnson (post apocalyptic Brazilian matriarchy where art saves the world!), Robin LaFevers (assassin nuns of Death), Ellen Kushner (YEAH!), and Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Odyssey retold with Mexican girls). Go, Girls!
terramundi
October 16, 2013 @ 5:43 pm
Then there is the New Fake Writer Girl on the block– Donna Hosie, who has one trilogy (Young Adult Urban Fantasy, no less)under her belt in which she plays with the Arthurian legends and has that relationship thing going!(The Return to Camelot trilogy, on Amazon)
She even took a spot with an agent and is presentl writing ANOTHER book series about demons! I mean, really–isn’t that best left to a semi-religious alpha male? How else could a demon tempt the protagonist with some luscious girl-flesh? The nerve!
Heather
October 16, 2013 @ 5:45 pm
Aha! Made it almost all the way to the bottom thinking I would have to jump in to personally condemn C.S. Friedman as a Fake Writer Girl. Glad someone else got there first. Also, Anne Bishop, Shiloh Walker, Rob Thurman. And so many more already mentioned by others.
Torrey Podmajersky
October 16, 2013 @ 5:47 pm
Where is Catherynne Valente? Kij Johnson?
gwenddydd monen
October 16, 2013 @ 5:49 pm
Alice Borchard, and her silver wolf. Epic Jaqueline Carey. My favorite will always be Anne Maccaffrey, who is worst of all and gave her son Todd her girlcooties! 😉 ( and her worlds)
Margaret Organ-Kean, Fake Artist-Girl
October 16, 2013 @ 5:51 pm
Mary Shelley
Vonda N. McIntyre
Joanna Russ
Kage Baker
Nancy Kress
KL Whitlock
October 16, 2013 @ 5:51 pm
Here are more. Please excuse the redundancies.
Kelley Armonstron
Sandra Boynton
PC Hodgsell
Robin McKinley
Rachel Aaron
Rachel Bach
Corinne Kilgore
Jane Lindskold
Kate Forsyth
KE Mills
Courtney Schafer
Eugie Foser
Sandra McDonald
Karen Traviss
Cameron Haley
Ann Leckie
Nancy A Collins
Kate Griffin
Tara Harper
Tara Maya
Vonda McIntire
Kate Wilhelm
Betsy Wollheim
Ann Crispin
Jody Lynn Nye
CJ Cherryh
Jane Fanceher
Devon Monda
Laura Ann Gilman
Judith Tarr
Lynn Abbey
Kay Kenyon
Lezli Robyn
Tanya Huff
Delia Sherman
Terry Windling-Gayton
Storm Constantine
Ellen Datlow
RA MacAvoy
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Elizabeth Hand
Margaret Weiss
Cherie Priest
Sara Zettel
Jenn Bennett
Kelly Link
Jessica Billings
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Jenna Black
Sara King
Arlene Blakely
Amber Kizer
Lori Brighton
Mercedes Lackey
Jayne Castle
Danyelle Leafty
Karen Chance
Lesley Livingston
Cassandra Clare
Monique Martin
Susanna Clark
Shannon Mayer
Aliette De Bodard
Elizabeth Mock
Linna Drehmel
Melissa Miller
India Drummond
Melissa Olson
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Kalayna Price
Laurell K Hamilton
Annie Reed
Christina Henry
Terri Reid
Tanya Huff
Ally Shields
Elizabeth Hunter
Linnea Sinclair
Faith Hunter
Jo Walton
Hannah Jayne
Carrie Vaughan
Darynda Jones
Diana Wynne Jones
Julie Kagawa
Jimmy Gillentine
October 16, 2013 @ 5:53 pm
How about Elizabeth Donald? She’s awesome! Great stories of action and scifi.
KatG
October 16, 2013 @ 5:53 pm
Does anyone know how to get several hundreds of names into a comment post?
Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little
October 16, 2013 @ 5:54 pm
Have we called out Madeline Ashby yet? How about Catherynne M. Valente?
Kristen, I am very jealous. I wasn’t able to make it out to Sirens this year. Sounds like it was fantastic!
Sistercoyote
October 16, 2013 @ 6:02 pm
Danny — No, no, I’m a fake WRITER girl! 😉
It’s the fact that I helped friends of mine (both female) when they were learning how to acid-etch the chain mail they made THEMSELVES by hand so it would look more “orcish” that makes me a fake GEEK girl, I think. Well, that and the fact that there are a handful of people who ONLY know me by my Tabletop FRPG character’s name (which, oddly enough, is male…)
Sistercoyote
October 16, 2013 @ 6:03 pm
It’s one thing to laugh and snort a liquid up one’s nose.
I managed to perform this trick with a Pringle, thanks to…erm. I mean, when I read “Flying Spaghetti Monster’s meaty balls.”
So, you know.
Ron Oakes
October 16, 2013 @ 6:08 pm
My wife – the aforementioned Fake Geek Girl wife, that is; the one with over 100 toy robots – gets mad at me if I accuse Austin of being “Romance” or even “Regency Romance.”
Sistercoyote
October 16, 2013 @ 6:09 pm
Would you be so kind as to share the name of this wondrous thing over which I am already clutching my great-grandmother’s pearls which I happened to wear to work on this fine day?
Jenn
October 16, 2013 @ 6:11 pm
Glad I’m not the only one who thought of CS (aka, Celia!) Friedman. I read “Black Sun Rising” at 15 and the concept blew my mind, in the best of ways! =)
Sistercoyote
October 16, 2013 @ 6:11 pm
I don’t know. Do tables work in this comment field?
BijouxIce
October 16, 2013 @ 6:16 pm
Delilah S. Dawson, Gwenda Bond, Jacqueline Carey, Catherynne Valente, Laurell K. Hamilton and Diana Gabaldon also need to be on your list if you want it to be comprehensive and all.
Teresa Frohock
October 16, 2013 @ 6:24 pm
Even though I see a few of them already mentioned, I am going to name and rename my fellow Booksworn authors: Elspeth Cooper, Betsy Dornbusch, Kameron Hurley, Stina Leicht, Helen Lowe, Anne Lyle, Evie Manieri, Courtney Schafer, Mary Victoria, and me.
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 6:27 pm
I KNOW! It’s so HARD being a straight white male author these days 🙁
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 6:27 pm
Hmph. She never let *me* play with her puppets.
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 6:28 pm
Simple genre romance. Because GIRL!!!
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 6:29 pm
No offense taken. Bujold is awesome. And besides, I consider myself an F author, not an SF author, so it’s all good 🙂
Jim C. Hines
October 16, 2013 @ 6:30 pm
😀
KPM
October 16, 2013 @ 6:31 pm
I don’t think I saw Mercedes Lackey mentioned. Everyone in the family (male and female) love her stuff. I know I just got a ton of new to me authors to read. Thanks!
Lisa Hendrix
October 16, 2013 @ 6:35 pm
New Fake Geek Girl with two futuristic suspense novels coming out next year:
M. D. Waters
Chad C Mulligan
October 16, 2013 @ 6:37 pm
Mary Gentle. Always thought Jackson missed a trick by not making Grunts in sekrit while he was making Rings.
Patty Jansen
October 16, 2013 @ 6:38 pm
I was told point blank by a publisher that they didn’t want hard SF written by women. I’m wondering how many sales to Analog they need for a woman to qualify as “real hard SF writer”. Obviously the two I have are not enough. This is part of why I self-publish.
Kerry aka Trouble
October 16, 2013 @ 6:40 pm
I don’t see Michelle Sagara/West on anybody’s list – her books are a match for GRRM any day. Also missing are Rachel Caine and Carol Berg.
Amy
October 16, 2013 @ 6:40 pm
The shock! The horror! The scandal of it all! Why, if Mary Shelley had only known back when she started this whole gen–
WAIT, NOT HER TOO?!
Karen Lichty
October 16, 2013 @ 6:43 pm
ROBIN HOBB
JACQUELINE CAREY
try some of those semi-naked poses on your covers—
Samanda
October 16, 2013 @ 6:43 pm
Don’t forget Mercedes Lackey had THE GALL to make 1 hero, Vanyel, a GAY man, then had the APPALINGLY TRUE FACTS to have HIM raped, thus “proving” that men can be raped, which is an IMPOSSIBILITY in Manly Fantast! Not even George R. R. Martin, who is depraved, will do THAT!
Elizabeth
October 16, 2013 @ 6:50 pm
Ysabeau Wilce. No wonder Flora gets into trouble trying to do magic – her mother gallivants around as General of the army instead of staying home with her children!
Carla
October 16, 2013 @ 6:54 pm
Maria Lima! Fabulous urban fantasy with kickass characters and an intriguing storyline.
Burgundy Featherkile
October 16, 2013 @ 7:02 pm
OMG! I’ve corrupted my husband by reading the Foreigner Series (C.J. Cherryh) aloud to him. We’ve already gotten to book #12. He’s 75 years old, so I guess you CAN teach an old dog new tricks; either that or he’s lost all those macho brain cells guys are supposed to have. Will I be forgiven if I admit I also read all the Jig books aloud to him.
deka
October 16, 2013 @ 7:06 pm
Sara Douglass
Trudi Canavan
Jennifer Fallon
Fiona McIntosh
Jennifer Roberson
Elizabeth A Lynn
Holly Lisle
Llyn Flewelling
Glenda Larke
Cecelia Dart Thornton
Katherine Kerr
Sharon Shinn
Tanith Lee
Tracy Harding
Kim Falconer
Kristin Cashore
Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb’s other non de plume)
Catherine Asaro
The list goes on
Jim C. Hines » Fake Writer Girls! | Lexy Wolfe
October 16, 2013 @ 7:08 pm
[…] Jim C. Hines » Fake Writer Girls!. […]
Jennielf
October 16, 2013 @ 7:08 pm
No one mentioned Esther Friesner who even has the gall of getting COMEDY mixed in with the Fantasy and SF! Oh noes!
Amarantha
October 16, 2013 @ 7:08 pm
Must add Katharine Kerr to the list. Also Enid Blyton in the corruption-of-children section.
K
Joie
October 16, 2013 @ 7:09 pm
Sarah Beth Durst DARES to be prolific and present in the sci-fi and fantasy genres and just basically tells girls that they can be powerful AND loving, even when the dudes around them are powerful enough to take care of them. I mean, it’s RIDICULOUS. Why would those girls want anything else? They have teh menz to take care of them and love them and make them feel like there’s a place for them in teh mens world – it’s not like they need a world of their own with that kind of love and acceptance already available. Durst should just go home.
Amber Baughman
October 16, 2013 @ 7:16 pm
Moira J. Moore
Lilith Saintcrow
I see Michelle Sagara West is up there, but I don’t see Melissa Scott, yet, and she writes absolutely kick ass SF and Fantasy, often with LGBT characters, so she can’t be a REAL writer.
Rachel Neumeier
Antiqueight
October 16, 2013 @ 7:19 pm
Juliet McKenna
C.E. Murphy
Ruth Frances Long
That’s 3 from different countries….