Fight Like a Girl Interview – Part One

All right, how many times have we heard the call for more female representation in the speculative fiction industry? Or even believable female characters? Not just any old girl will do. Nope, the demand is for agency, realism, strength. Some, I don’t doubt, are tired of hearing it. Then there’s that campaign telling us that women can write SFF just as well. Not something I would have thought needed underlining but Fight Light A Girl does that – and then some because the writers included in Fight Like A Girl aren’t lacking in reputation. What a list of contributors – Roz Clarke, Kelda Crich, K T Davies, Dolly Garland, K R Green, Joanne Hall, Julia Knight, Kim Lakin-Smith, Juliet McKenna, Lou Morgan, Gaie Sebold, Sophie E Tallis, Fran Terminiello, Danie Ware, and Nadine West! Yet I have to say I was wary when I first heard about this anthology. The cover of the book Kristell Ink brings to the bookshelves means business, playful yet bold. The artist Sarah Anne Langton didn’t mess about. But Fight Like A Girl as a title, eh? Insult? Not in this case. No primping, no preening, no dithering about what to wear. Seriously, shoes are the last thing on their mind. The collected authors (or if we’re going to be correct about it, authoresses) come to this battle not prove a point but with a challenge, “Come on if you think you’re ‘ard enough.”

Unwilling to walk away from a challenge like that, especially when issued from such a collection of talented writers I invited the authoresses for coffee and cake…Wait, no… that’s not right at all…

Welcome to SFFWorld everyone. Joanne, Roz. As editors of the anthology, why did you commission Fight Like A Girl? Hasn’t the topic of female representation had enough coverage?

Joanne Hall: You say that, but what came up during the discussions on Twitter that led to the anthology (instigated by Danie Ware) was that even though the subject of female representation has had lots of coverage, that coverage has not necessarily led to change. The display tables in booksellers and reviews sections in magazines are still male-dominated, and so are a lot (not all by any means, but a lot) of the TOC of speculative fiction anthologies. When the idea of the anthology was first tossed around we knew that we wanted it to be all women in every sense, from the stories to the editing to the publishing to the cover art. I think that’s still relatively rare. We’re still playing on a field that’s not level.

Danie Ware: I’m going to jump in here, as the Fight Like A Girl project spun out of a random question that I tweeted about eighteen months ago, asking who would like to see/contribute to an all-female butt-kicking anthology… and the thing just snowballed. It gathered a large amount of Social Media attention, a rack of talent wanting to contribute, plus a cover artist ready to go, (plus a lot of men supporting the project as well), and Jo and Roz at Kristell Ink were very keen to take the project on.

Roz Clarke: I have to put my hand up and say that I wasn’t involved in the anthology initially, though I was part of the social media discussion that led to it. I was brought on board later on, which I was delighted about. The conversation had in fact been going on for some time, and there were two aspects to it; lack of representation of women with agency within genre fiction, and the lack of visibility of female writers. Fight Like a Girl addresses both. Yes, there has been a lot of discussion about the problem, but as Jo said, we don’t have a level playing field yet, and ultimately we in the industry have to get on and actually do the representing.

Did you, as a writer, find the theme of Fight Like A Girl an inspiration, a challenge or a chance to rise to the call?

K. T. Davies: Without a doubt I found it an inspiration. I love subverting tropes so the theme totally rocked my tiny little world.

Sophie E. Tallis: Definitely an inspiration and a chance to rise to the call! Both as a writer and someone who works in a library, sadly I have encountered bias on more than one occasion. I’ve had readers of my own fiction saying, “I don’t usually read books by female authors but yours was great!” – what were they expecting? And annoyingly I’ve had more than a few customers at the library stating flatly that they don’t read ‘women’s fiction’ – “I’m not into chick-lit,” is the usual comment, well, neither am I and neither is Hilary Mantel, Margaret Atwood, Gillian Flynn, Ursula Le Guin etc. Female writers like their male counterparts, create awesome stories in every genre not just ‘chick-lit’. Despite being 2016, some stereotypes still remain in both the industry and readership and these need a damn good shattering!

Lou Morgan: I’ve written quite a lot of ‘fighty’ things before – my urban fantasy novels, the Blood & Feathers series, were very much about the war between angels and their fallen counterparts and involved a fair amount of violence by both male and female characters – so the idea of writing something specifically focused around it wasn’t too unusual. It was nice, though, to be given the opportunity to think about embedding a driving sense of female-ness (as opposed to “femininity”) in the motives and methods of the main character. In the case of my story, I specifically wanted to write about a different kind of conflict, and how one woman’s experience of it changes her.

Dolly Garland: I found it all of it, and more. It was an inspiration because it gave me a straight-forward framework to work with. I’ve been working at being a kick-ass woman by simply refusing to blindly bow to traditions all my life (I’m originally from India), and so it’s a challenge to portray that kind of sentiment in a positive manner. Most importantly, writing kick-ass women is fun. To ensure that in my story “Fight like a girl” is a compliment and not an insult is a privilege.

Julia Knight: Writing to a theme is always a challenge for me, as I tend to figure out that as I go rather than in advance. But it just so happened I had the perfect couple of characters to fit the theme so that made it an inspiration.

Fran Terminiello: I felt obliged to as I run a swordfighting school. I took the brief literally and went with what I know, hopefully the fight scenes were convincing enough. It’s still a challenge to write a fight scene, knowing those in your own martial arts community are ready to pick it to pieces, and there’s also the danger of writing something too technical to be accessible. You need to strike a balance. The concept of the anthology is brilliant, and I met some marvellous women through working on it.

I realise that the editors’ role is to bring together the submissions to suit the theme, but were you concerned that the theme of your story would be similar to everyone else’s?

Gaie Sebold: To be honest, it never even occurred to me! I run writing workshops, and know from experience that if you hand ten (or thirty) people the same opening line, picture, or object as a prompt you will get ten or thirty entirely different stories. Everything we write is informed by so many things, our background, our reading, our experiences, our beliefs – not to mention random eavesdroppings, a news item, a passing cat or anything else we might encounter before or during the process of writing.

Kelda Crich: My story is a Lovecraftian medieval fantasy, where the hidden Gods have emerged and have drawn us into their endless and fractured wars. My main character is a warrior, a woman of faith, a politician. She’s a woman with a direct link to the desolate future, and a woman with a secret hope for changing that future. The story has the typical mythos theme of despair in the face of cosmic malevolent or indifferent forces, but it has my typical theme of a touch of hope in the seemingly unwinnable situation. The themes are themes of endurance in the face of terrible situations, destiny and freewill, betrayal and hope. I thought my mythos take might be unusual for this anthology call, so I wasn’t worried about my story being too similar to the others.

Joanne Hall: From an editor’s point of view, I was really happy with the range of stories we were sent, which range from medieval swordplay to a dystopian near-future Brighton to space opera. I think there’s enough scope and ideas in SFF that even if two stories have a similar setting, such as the stories that open and close the anthology (by Juliet McKenna and Gaie Sebold respectively), the stories themselves will be different enough to be distinctive. A vast range of stories can be told using SFF themes!

Juliet McKenna: That was a concern, yes, so I decided I needed more than one twist on the theme – and hopefully, that the setting within my existing imagined world would be sufficiently distinctive even if other writers worked with similar ideas.

Danie Ware: Not remotely. All of authors that wanted to be involved are accomplished and creative, and it gave all of us a chance to write what we wanted. I think we’ve all enjoyed ourselves, as well.

Roz Clarke: No, I wasn’t… Because of the way the anthology came about, I had a good idea which other writers would be submitting, and being familiar with their work I knew they’d come up with a wide range of settings, stories, and characters. Which as you know, they did.

Aside from your own story (naturally!) do you have a favourite within Fight Like A Girl?

K. T. Davies: I’m sure as soon as I get my grubby mitts on a copy I’ll fall in love with many of them.

Roz Clarke: Actually mine would be some way down the list! I loved Danie Ware’s apocalyptic monsters in ‘Unnatural History’, and I found Gaie Sebold’s ‘Fire and Ash’ especially moving, but there are several stories in the anthology that have stayed with me.

Fran Terminiello: I only got my copy at the launch so I confess I can’t tell you. But at the readings my favourite was Danie Ware’s, she’s a brilliant narrator too.

Sophie E. Tallis: I must say, I am a little biased myself and enjoy reading anything by Joanne Hall – once again, I was not disappointed! I was also eager to read Danie Ware’s and Juliet McKenna’s stories, as I’ve heard so many great things about their writing but haven’t had the opportunity to read their work yet. Utterly brilliant! In fairness, I was astounded at the high quality of all the work here as so many anthologies can be inconsistent, with some crackers amongst the dross, but every single one of these stories raises the bar for all anthologies out there and is an awesomely sublime read in itself.

Fight Like A Girl is already gaining great reviews, how does it feel to be part of an anthology that has been so well received?

Lou Morgan: It’s a testament to the strength of the idea! The lovely thing about an anthology is the collective nature of it: everyone brings the strongest thread they can, and then it’s the skill of your editors that turns all those individual strings into a tapestry. Anthologies are always fun to be part of because they give you a real sense of variety: every contributor is different, but you’re all talking (generally speaking) about the same thing. You get a real kaleidoscope of voices and points of view – some of which you won’t have considered before.

Dolly Garland: I’m thrilled to be a part of it. It’s really heart-warming that the anthology has been so well received by women, but also by men.

Gaie Sebold: Fantastic. Obviously! As well as being nice for the authors, it’s good to see work from a small press like Kristell Ink getting this kind of attention. They’ve done a marvelous job. Small presses can have their problems but good ones are such a great resource for both authors and readers. And trying to improve discoverability for female voices is of course part of the reason for this whole thing, so it’s great that it’s working.

Juliet McKenna: Extremely rewarding, both on my own account and for the sake of all women writers out there.

Julia Knight: This is my first antho, so for it to be so well received is a great first experience!

There is this perception that there is a difference in the gender a person recognises as and the quality of the narrative or tale told. Does this add pressure or influence your work in any way or is it just one more obstacle to deal with?

Fran Terminiello: I wasn’t aware of this prejudice until the launch. I snorted with laughter when I first heard it, I couldn’t believe people actually believe that notion. It makes me sad, and also angry. My observation is that when women write about real emotions it’s called fluff, when men do it, it’s grit.

Joanne Hall: I don’t think a person’s gender has any effect at all on the quality of their work, but sometimes, and not always to the good, it has an effect on the perceptions of the person reading it. My novels can be quite gritty and bloodthirsty, and they’ve been labelled as “grimdark” in some quarters, so I’m sometimes running into the perception that “women don’t write grimdark”. That can be kind of irritating, people trying to apply labels to my work and then telling me I don’t fit those labels due to the contents of my underpants. But I write the stories I’d like to read. I don’t let people pressure me into changing the way I write simply because of my gender – I’m way too stubborn for that!

Sophie E. Tallis: I really don’t concern myself with it. The gender of the author or narrator is totally irrelevant to me when writing or reading great fiction and shouldn’t throw up any barriers other than the preconceptions of others. GRR Martin commented recently, when asked by an interviewer how he is able to write such convincing female characters that – “Well, you know, I’ve always considered women to be people.” Exactly! Sometimes a stereotype that is levelled at women writers, is that their narratives are ‘too emotional’ when compared to men. I don’t believe this to be true at all, but I suppose if I have any gender concerns when writing, it would be not to fall into any stereotype.

Danie Ware: The quality of my writing is purely dependent on my own ability to string words together (and possible coffee). When I’m writing, I try to write the best character and narrative I can, and I don’t actually think about the gender of my characters – what would a man do, what would a woman do – each character reacts as an individual, regardless.

Roz Clarke: Compared to the grief I get as a female gamer, the misogyny in specfic is small beer. The great thing is that while the wider industry has a long way to go (Jo mentioned the tables in bookshops earlier, but it’s everywhere – check out Nicola Griffiths’ work on award statistics), and you certainly can get trolled on the internet, there are plenty of great role models out there. Many conventions these days are making serious efforts on representation and diversity, so the specfic community feels welcoming and supportive for the most part.

You’ve received an invite to the Annual Battle of the Galaxies. An inter-dimensional cross time portal has opened (as they do), and you must nominate your champion. Who would you send, and why?

K. T. Davies: If I could lay my hands on a suit of adapted-for-short-arse, Mjolnir mark VII armour, I’d go myself, just for research purposes you understand. Failing that, I’d send Ching Shih— with upgraded ships, ‘natch. You can keep yer Jack Sparrows; this pirate lady was totes nails for reals and knew how to command a mighty fleet.

Dolly Garland: Buffy! The original kick-ass girl for those of us from the 90s. Buffy can kick-ass, look cute doing it, and still show all the human flaws. That’s a great combination in any hero.

Gaie Sebold: Hmm. Depends. If you need someone who is an excellent individual fighter with pre-industrial weaponry, probably Babylon (are your own characters allowed?) Or Buffy. Or Scathach, who trained Cuchulainn. But what if you need someone who can command armies? That’s harder. Real historical figures like maybe Trung Trac and Trung Nhi or Artemisia of Caria. Fictional military leaders…the only one who immediately comes to mind is General Leia Organa. Either I haven’t read enough of the right fantasy, or there’s still a severe shortage of fantasy with female military leaders. There may be more in military SF but it’s not something I read much of.

Lou Morgan: I’m a history geek, so I’m going to send a duo: Sir Thomas Fairfax, who was instrumental in the New Model Army’s campaign during the English Civil War, and Henry V – because amongst other things I’m a medievalist, and deeply predictable.

Failing that, probably Chris Pratt’s version of Star Lord from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. The whole thing will come within a whisker of catastrophe, but at least it’ll be fun.

Julia Knight: Sarah Connor. That woman gets things done (and never gives up).

With World Book Night on the 23^rdof April what SFF book would you like to give to a non-genre-reader and why?

Kelda Crich: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. We read this at my mainly non-genre-reading book club and it went down a storm. My friends were amazed that science fiction could be so emotionally powerful. I think this illustrates certain false expectations about what SF is. And how genre is a convenience rather than an absolute. There is only story. Hoorah. *Waves banner*

Juliet McKenna: Terry Pratchett’s ‘Only You Can Save Mankind’. It’s a quick, fluent read and it’s very funny. It has that connection with real life and a reader’s own lived experience which secondary world fantasy or far future SF may lack and which some find a stumbling block. Most of all, it has a depth of ideas that shows just how well SFF can reflect and explore the real world issues we all have to deal with.

Roz Clarke: It would depend on what they did like reading. If they think specfic is low-brow, then I’d throw ’em Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It’s unarguably both SFnal and literary, and a great read to boot. On the other hand if they liked crime, Paul Cornell’s London Falling is hugely entertaining. Historical fiction fans ought to give alternate history a try – The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick is a superb book and a fascinating thought experiment. I think there’s something in speculative fiction for every reader, from thrillers to erotica.

Fran Terminiello: I would give them The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin. Because it challenges our notions about how to make the world a better place, especially in these troubled times. What other kind are there? It’s also spookily prophetic.

K. T. Davies: Give someone the precious!? Oh, go on then. If I must give away an SFF book to entice a n00b to read some legit fine lit, I’d give Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities because it is and it isn’t a ‘genre’ book.

Dolly Garland: Harry Potter. Cliché it may be, but I think it is so well-suited to introducing people to how, well, magical, magical worlds can be. Plus the fact that it takes an ordinary boy into a magical world, gives non-genre readers a little bit grounded experience of the “other” world.

And finally, what other anthologies would you like to see published?

Roz Clarke: Going back to SFF and crime, I’d like to read more speculative noir.

Sophie E. Tallis: Perhaps a factual companion piece to Fight Like A Girl, featuring real stories from women warriors who kicked-ass through history?

Julia Knight: A bit of everything – SFF is such a broad genre, only limited by our imaginations. I’d love to see that celebrated.

Joanne Hall: I’m really enjoying Fox Spirit’s Monsters series (European Monsters and African Monsters) edited by Jo Thomas and Margret Helgadottir – I’d like to see where that goes next! And I’d like to see more anthologies about deep space exploration and cyber-stuff – sfnal body modification and AIs, things like that. That would be cool.

Danie Ware: Any of them. All of them. Anthologies of themes and dreams and people and concepts. Based around ideas and pub tables and things that people find creepy or funny or touching. There are as many stories as there area ideas – and anthologies are a great way to sketch out a multitude of images from a single starting point – as Fight Like A Girl has proven!

Gaie Sebold: I would love to see a collection of stories exploring sex and sexuality within radically different cultures/physicalities. I think this is the sort of thing SFF can do so well – giving us a new perspective on ourselves and how we deal with these things. And collections of short fantasy romance. And more rewritten fairy tales because there can’t be too many of those. And of course Fight Like A Girl 2, 3, 4….

We’ll pause and give the interviewees time to re-group, sharpen their wits and replenish the alcohol…I mean coffee. “Be Sure to Tune In Next Week to Find Out More!”

Fight Like A Girl was launched with much celebration in Bristol on April 2^nd, and is now available from Amazon and Kristell Ink. If you can only afford to buy one book this year, make it this one. Head to your nearest library for everything else these authoresses have written!

If you’d like to find out more about the contributing authors you can by following the links:

Roz Clarke, Kelda Crich, K T Davies, Dolly Garland, K R Green, Joanne Hall, Julia Knight, Kim Lakin-Smith, Juliet McKenna, Lou Morgan, Gaie Sebold, Sophie E Tallis, Fran Terminiello, Danie Ware, Nadine West.