Lady Business

Jenny is the splendid and prodigious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the funny and entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book recs in genres other than YA. She is also a champion library patron and is kind to all librarians.

Did y’all enjoy that inadvertent summer break from my YA recs? Summer is a quiet time for American YA releases, so I improved the shining hour by staying inside and sulking about the heat that makes it impossible for me to walk anywhere and the humidity that turns my hair into a tumbleweed. But now it’s September, which means it’s still hot as hell but I at least have college football and the prospect of coolish weather someday. As such, I am now able to return to YA excitement—and just in time, because L. L. McKinney’s A Blade So Black deserves to be screamed about!



A Blade So Black is a black Alice in Wonderland, which is probably enough to bring you in on it, but in case not: Alice’s father has just died when she stumbles across a Nightmare from another world. She’s saved in the nick of time by the sexy, mysterious Addison Hatta, who trains her as a warrior and defender of Atlanta (and like, all of earth!); she’s brilliant at it, but being a Nightmare warrior doesn’t mean she’s not on the hook for schoolwork, supporting her friends, and keeping to her protective mom’s early curfew.

And now, Five Questions for YA Authors (and one just for L. L. McKinney!)

( Read more... )

( Exciting releases! )

Get at me in the comments for the YA books you’re anticipating this month!

Jenny is the splendid and prodigious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the funny and entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book recs in genres other than YA. She is also a champion library patron and is kind to all librarians.

Let me begin by saying that if you have not yet read any of Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances, you are missing a trick. I recommend beginning with The Grand Sophy, which features a spirited girl sorting out messes a la Flora Post. And if Georgette Heyer’s books give you the same feeling of joy and satisfaction that they give me, then you will be in the perfect mindset for this month’s frontlist/backlist pairing of books about gifted girls in gowns. ( Read more... )

One thing I’ve learned from talking to people about short fiction is that there are many different styles of reading short fiction. There are people like me who read one story (generally online) and then stop and do something else. There are people who sit down with a print or ebook magazine and read the whole thing cover to cover. There are people who only listen to short fiction in podcast form. So I was thinking about the different ways people read short SFF, and I wanted to find out more about these differences. I also thought that since lots of people have different short fiction reading habits, people who want to try short fiction might find that different pieces of advice are helpful to different people. So I’ve invited several guests to the column to talk about their short fiction reading habits and to share advice for people new to short fiction.

This roundtable features prolific short fiction readers, so they have a lot of great ideas for where to find short fiction, but I know it can be a little intimidating when there's so much to choose from and people who read so much! I hope this roundtable gives readers a taste of how many ways there are to read short fiction and how many entry points there are, and that there's no wrong way to read, including how much you read or at what point in life you start reading short fiction.

My guests are A.C. Wise, Bogi Takács, Brandon O’Brien, Vanessa Fogg, and Bridget McKinney. While we were working on this roundtable, the 2018 Hugo Awards finalist were announced, and I'm very pleased that two of my guests, Bogi Takács and Bridget McKinney, are on that list! Congratulations to both of them! And now without further ado I’ll let my guests introduce themselves. ( Read more... )

Jenny is the splendid and prodigious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the funny and entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book recs in genres other than YA. She is also a champion library patron and is kind to all librarians.

Happy spring, my YA-loving friends. I hope that you are in locations that experience pleasant spring weather, and that April is not bringing you too many showers or too many of those caterpillars that fall from trees in your hair and sting your hands when you scream and try to remove them. This month, we’re welcoming the fabulous Tomi Adeyemi to talk about her debut novel, the fantasy epic Children of Blood and Bone.

And now: Five Questions for YA Authors (and one just for Tomi Adeyemi)

( Read more... )

( Exciting release! )

Please hit me up in the comments to scream about that cliffhanger in Children of Blood and Bone, or hit me up on Twitter if you want the Lady Business readers to live spoiler-free lives.

Well, 2017 was a shitty year in a lot of ways, but in terms of short fiction it was pretty good for me. I read many excellent fiction of all lengths. There are still more short stories being published than novelettes and novellas, but the latter two are catching up, especially with the Book Smugglers novella line debuting this year and Tor.com continuing to put out a ton of novellas. I’m also seeing online magazines being more and more willing and able to print longer works.

As always, I didn’t read anything close to all the short fiction published this year. But I did come up with a scheme to help keep myself from getting too behind. In the past I’ve tried to read a short story a day and I’ve never been able to keep that up. Instead, starting in 2017 I’ve been setting myself a monthly goal to read at least 12 pieces of short fiction. This is a lot less than a story a day but a lot more do-able and helps me keep up with what I’ve bookmarked to read rather than letting everything pile up until it's overwhelming. I’ve also been working on not finishing stories that I’m not enjoying and not reading things that are too grim for my tastes. I think I’ve improved on both of those counts.

I’ve noticed some themes and trends in the short fiction I’ve been reading. My personal tastes tend towards domestic short fiction. I love stories with cooking, farming, and just plain daily living, so you’ll find stories with those themes in this list. These types of stories seemed easier to find this year, but maybe I’ve just gotten really good at honing in on them.

Another theme I’m seeing a lot is robots and AI, especially fiction from the viewpoint of an AI character. I’ve been seeing this trend in more longer works, too, and I think it's great; I love seeing so many takes on what being a robot might be like.

Another great trend I’m seeing is more marginalized characters and greater diversity of such. Short fiction has always been one of the more diverse corners of SFF and that diversity has only gotten wider and deeper over time. This year's list features stories about non-binary characters, characters with a variety of disabilities, queer characters, and characters of many ethnicities. Many of these are #ownvoices stories.

And now on to my favorite stories of 2017! I’ve listed these by Hugo Award categories for the convenience of nominating for the awards.

( Short Stories )

( Novelettes )

( Novellas )

That’s everything! I hope this list is helpful and that you find something here that you love. How was your 2017 short fiction reading? Did you love anything I didn’t include? Please share recommendations in the comments.

forestofglory is a fan, crafter, and an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy short fiction. You can find her on Dreamwidth and on Twitter at forestofglory.