If you’ve been stalking me on social media recently, you might have noticed me dropping veiled hints about the BookSworn. You might even have wondered what it was all about.

Today, the truth is out.

So who are the BookSworn?

They are weavers of worlds and spinners of tales, a writer’s collective that features some of fantasy’s freshest voices from the last couple of years.

They are Bradley Beaulieu, Betsy Dornbusch, Teresa Frohock, Douglas Hulick, Kameron Hurley, Zachary Jernigan, Mark Lawrence, Stina Leicht, Helen Lowe, Anne Lyle, Evie Manieri, Jeff Salyards, Courtney Schafer, Mary Victoria, Mazarkis Williams and, er, me.

In the coming weeks we will be blogging and writing essays on the art and craft of genre fiction, offering sneak peeks at our upcoming books, and giving away some very cool stuff.

To help us launch our new website, you are cordially invited to attend a

Grand Masked Ball

and mingle with our characters over the next seven days. Guess who’s behind the masks, and you could win a stupendous pile of signed books.

Time: Monday 18th March 2013, from 12 noon EST (5pm GMT)

Venue: BookSworn

Dress: Masque

All welcome!

. . . Fantasy, of course. What did you think I was going to say?

There has been much talk of late on teh intertubes concerning the fact that so many “Best of . . .” and “Top 100” lists of fantasy and SF writers are male author-heavy, with many people feeling that female spec fic authors are under-represented, marginalised or downright ignored.

In reaction to this, Amanda Rutter started Fantasy Mistressworks (as a sister to the SF Mistressworks site) and put together the following list of 50 Fantasy Mistressworks, based on suggestions from readers.

Curious, I checked out the list and marked in bold the ones I’d read (italics mean I own the book). Drumroll, please . . . Continue reading