I
remember as a kid wanting to sneak aboard NASA’s space shuttle and orbit the
earth. Then I longed to travel in Dr. Who’s TARDIS. This curiosity to explore
beyond our star system led—in no small part—to an Honours Degree in Mechanical
Engineering and a minor in Aerospace.
So
you can imagine my delight when I discovered the BRAVE NEW GIRLS anthology
series! These collections of sci-fi stories feature brainy young heroines who
use their smarts to save the day. Girls who fix robots and construct superhero
suits, hack interstellar corporations and build virtual reality platforms. Who
experiment with new-fangled devices and tinker with time machines. Who defy
expectations and tap into their know-how—in the depths of space, or the bounds
of dystopia, or the steampunk-y past, or the not-too-distant future—to solve
despicable crimes, talk to extraterrestrials, and take down powerful villains.
I
asked the minds behind BRAVE NEW GIRLS, Paige Daniels and Mary Fan to tell us
more about them.
What inspired you to create
a science fiction anthology series for middle-grade and young adult readers?
Paige: I'd say the lack
of material out there. I think the market is better than I was a kid (a million
years ago), but still a lot of the YA heroines are these tough kick-ass girls,
but you don't see a lot of girls who are straight up smart and really not
ashamed of that.
Mary: Paige and I felt there
weren’t a lot of YA stories out there about girls who were both brainy and the
heroines of their stories. Too often, the girl who was into tech or science was
stuck in a supporting role – the nerdy best friend or something. And since
fiction can have a huge impact on how you see the world – including your own
place in it – we felt the lack of fictional peers and role models might be influencing
real-world girls and whether they chose to pursue STEM. So we wanted to fill
that gap.
How do you come up with the cool subtitles?
Paige: Uh a lot of
brainstorming between me and Mary, that happens at GenCon (aka the Brave New
Girls onsite yearly meeting). I think the first couple came fairly easily this
last one was a little tougher to come up with.
Mary: Yup, basically a lot of
trial and error. Girls & Gadgets (the first one) came to us super easily,
and since then, we've been trying to follow the format - something about the
girls and then something tech-y. And it has to have alliteration, which is
getting harder with each anthology... Hopefully we won't run out of words!
The protagonists are girls
with a knack for science, tech, engineering and math. How cool! Tell us about
connecting STEM and the stories.
Paige: I think each
author has a different process. Personally, I'm not a fan of stories that cram
STEM and such down your throat. I like it to be an organic part of the story.
Like it's not weird that this girl is interested in STEM or that she's smart.
It's just seen as that's they way it should be.
Mary: It’s different with
each story, of course, but what we’re looking for in submissions are stories
where the main character is into STEM. Sometimes, the whole story ends up
revolving around this – they’re using their STEM skills throughout the story. Other
times, it’s more incidental – the plot happens, and the STEM skill comes in
handy. I think it’s just important that being into STEM is part of who the
character is, and that it’s not shoehorned in. Because that’s how I’d like to
see it in the real world too. You can be into STEM, and it’s not a big deal.
It’s who you are, you’re comfortable with it, and your friends support you.
Each story has a unique
illustration. Is there a story behind that?
Paige: Mary and I both
really love book covers and when were first coming up with this idea i think we
were both totally on board with the fact that each story HAD to have its own
illustration. Personally, it's one of the aspects of editing these books i look
forward to the most. We're the first to see the art. We always ooh and aww at
it.
Mary: We really spoiled
ourselves with the first anthology. Honestly I think we just wanted
illustrations because we thought they’d be cool, and after we exceed our
crowdfunding goal, we thought, “Hey, why not?” Of course when we decided to do
more anthologies, we couldn’t NOT have illustrations in those too. It’s so much
fun seeing what the artists come up with each story! And some authors do their
own, which is always fun. I actually did my own for the first anthology just to
see if I could.
The proceeds from sales are donated to a scholarship fund with the Society of Women Engineers. Can you tell us more about that?
Mary: I’m going to let Paige
answer this one!
Paige: When we first
thinking of this series of books we wanted to do some sort of outreach /
scholarship with it. My day job involves STEM and outreach and engineering. I
know all the work that it takes to administer a scholarship yearly and I knew
neither of us had the bandwidth to do that. But I am a member of Society of
Women Engineers and I knew they had scholarships for girls and they are darn
good at being advocates for women in tech so we figured let them do the heavy
lifting and we'll donate to them.
When can we get the next installment?
Paige: The ebook is out! Paperback July 2019!
Mary: Yup, we’re targeting July 2019 release! Just around the corner in time for summer reading! We *need* to have paperbacks on hand for
GenCon (the biggest event we do each year), and it's at the beginning of
August, so come hell or high water, that book will be done...
When you were a kid did
you feel a push or a pull away from science and engineering?
Paige: I always loved
science. My mom always had me watching shows like Mr. Wizard, Nova, Star Trek,
and any other sci-fi we could watch. In sci-fi, particularly, there seemed to
be equity in that there were women scientists and engineers (at the time I
didn't know what an engineer was), but for me it was like duh that's what I'm
going to do. I didn't really know the real world stats on women in STEM at the
time.
Mary: I loved science as a
kid and pursued it throughout high school. In fact, when I entered college, the
first major I declared was chemical engineering. Sadly, I dropped out of the
engineering school after a year. In hindsight, I think it was the way the intro
courses were structured. Giant, soulless lectures where you had people of all
levels, from total newbies to folks who'd taken the course before but wanted an
easy A, in one spot. Problem sets that were graded solely on the answer, not
any of the work leading up to it, that gave you no room to learn from your
mistakes. Basically, I was left feeling that unless all this came to you easily
and naturally, you were a loser who had no place STEM. But the thing is, STEM
*is* hard. And it's okay to struggle along the way. I wish I'd realized that as
a teenager. And I wish my school had actually cared about nurturing potential
talent, instead of creating a Hunger Games-type environment that left people to
fend for themselves.
Did any specific authors influence you growing up?
Paige: I think my favorite
authors I read as a teen were Terry Brooks and Dean Koontz. Sometimes I think
I'm more influenced by movies and TV.
Mary: I loved the Sherlock
Holmes books and stories as a kid. The first time I read them, I'd checked out
the complete omnibus of all the collected works, so to me, "Sherlock
Holmes" is one giant book haha. I think it's why all my books have some
element of mystery to them.
Were there specific stories or characters that you related to?
Paige: Going down the movies
and TV path .... Agent Scully was one of my favorites on TV. When I got way
older (like married with a kid) Kaylie from Firefly.
Mary: Hmm I don't think I
actually related to any characters when growing up. It always felt like an
"outside looking in" situation. Maybe it's because of the types of
things I chose to read -- old-school "literary" fiction by old or
dead white guys. To be frank, the first character I truly related to was
the main character of a YA book that came out in 2018 -- Mei from Gloria
Chao's American Panda.
You write in other genres as well. What are some of your other books?
Paige: I'm mostly a science
fiction girl. I have one series published and a few novellas and novels lying around
I'm still trying to figure out what to do with. My published series is Non
Compliance.
Mary: My first published
series was a space adventure trilogy: The Jane Colt trilogy. It's in the same
genre realm as BRAVE NEW GIRLS because it's still sci-fi, but it's
not specifically for young readers. I also have a YA dark fantasy series. The
first book in the planned trilogy, FLYNN NIGHTSIDER AND THE EDGE OF EVIL, came
out in 2018, and there are a few short stories that take place in the same
universe (I'm planning to collect them as an anthology). This has no science at
all -- it's all dark magic, bloodthirsty monsters, and evil spirits... plus a
totalitarian government that uses magic to oppress people. Another book of mine
is STRONGER THAN A BRONZE DRAGON, which is a steampunk fantasy that takes place
in an East Asian-inspired second world. Warrior girl who teams up with a
mischievous thief to defeat the demon king... oh, and there are mechanical
dragons and airships.
Any thoughts on the story telling world today?
Paige: Interesting... I think
with the POD and e-readers it really has opened the field to have a lot more
diverse stories. I think that's a great thing. However, with all good things
there's a downside. As reader, it's really easy to get overwhelmed at all the
selections there are now. I think at that people tend to shut down and just not
choose anything, because they get overwhelmed. But with streaming services
(Netflix, Hulu) I really think there's going to be more of chance to get a new set
of stories told. It's just if the people with the money want to take a chance
on the new stories instead of the same old things we've been seeing for years.
Mary: There's a huge push for
diversity in children's literature, and it's having tangible results. Books by
non-white authors, LGBTQ+ authors, disabled authors, and more are finally
getting published and promoted in significant numbers. Which is amazing, since
those authors represent and often depict a whole range of experiences that were
left out of books for so long. There's still a gap to be filled, but
thankfully, it's narrowing.
Check out the links below to buy the books!
Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls and Gadgets
Other e-book retailers: books2read.com/GirlsandGadgets
Brave New Girls: Stories of Girls Who Science And Scheme
Other e-book retailers: books2read.com/Science-and-Scheme
Brave New Girls: Tales of Heroines Who Hack
Other e-book retailers: books2read.com/heroineswhohack
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