This week we’re celebrating Lissa Price’s debut STARTERS! It hit shelves yesterday!

All this week we're celebrating Lissa Price and her debut, STARTERS available NOW from Random House! And if you haven't checked out the LA Times glowing review of the book, check it out here!


I was lucky to snag Lissa before her interview, and here's what she had to say about herself, her writing, and her latest title.

We can read all about your life from your bio in the jacket flap of your book. And let me tell our readers--you have led quite an interesting life! You have walked with elephants in Botswana, swum with penguins in the Galapagos, danced in India, and had tea in Kyoto. Wow!


So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know?
It's the inevitable question: what inspired STARTERS? 
What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer?

Okay, so this is a super exciting time at the League. Our very own Lissa Price's debut, STARTERS, will hit shelves tomorrow! All this week you'll get to learn more about the book, more about Lissa, and have many opportunities to win great STARTERS prizes!

First, a little bit about the book, if you haven't heard of it.

About STARTERS: In the future, teens rent their bodies to seniors who want to be young again. One girl discovers her renter plans to do more than party – she plans to use the body to murder someone.

Sixteen-year-old Callie lost her parents when the genocide spore wiped out everyone except those who were vaccinated first–the very young and very old. With no grandparents to claim Callie and her little brother, they go on the run, living as squatters, and fighting off unclaimed renegades who would kill for a cookie.

Hope comes via Prime Destinations, run by a mysterious figure known only as The Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to seniors, known as Enders, who get to be young again. Callie’s neurochip malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her rich renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, even dating Blake, the grandson of a senator. It’s a fairy-tale new life . . . until she uncovers the Body Bank’s horrible plan…

I was lucky enough to get an e-Galley through NetGalley, and I read this book a couple of months ago. My first thought? "Man, I wish I had thought of this!" It is a great concept, and not only that, but it's carried out well.

If you like dystopian novels with lots of action and the promise of kissing, you'll like STARTERS. If you like to be surprised in your plot, you'll like STARTERS. And if you like some pretty cool science fiction, you'll like STARTERS.

You can pre-order your copy, but you won't have to wait long! STARTERS releases tomorrow!

• Barnes and Noble
• Amazon
• Your favorite indie
• Kindle or Nook

There is also a short story, PORTRAIT OF A STARTER, available now!

• Kindle or Nook

Find out more about Lissa tomorrow in an interview, or by clicking on these links now:

• Official STARTERS Random House website
• Author website with tour dates and contact information
• Author Facebook site
• Twitter: @Lissa_Price

But that's not all! There is a great swag package up for grabs today! By leaving a comment on this post, you'll be entered to win 5 signed STARTERS bookmarks, 3 postcards (1 signed, the other two for you to use), a pin button (not pictured, but included AND awesome!), and a wristband.


This giveaway is open only in the US. So leave a comment to enter!

Heard of STARTERS? Excited for it to come out? Already read it? Lay it on us!

Okay, so I'm a huge lover of dystopian novels (I mean, duh). I've heard a few people out there saying that dystopian is dead, or that publishers aren't looking for dystopian anymore, etc. etc.

So today, I wanted to highlight a couple of fabulous dystopian novels that I've read recently, and a couple that I'm really looking forward to reading. (And dude, you know you're going to read our books. Just look on over to that left sidebar and get to reading!)

UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi: This book just came out in January, and you seriously need to get it. The world-building is fan-freaking-tastic, and the romance... Let's just say my 13-year-old son had no trouble stomaching it, and he really liked the book.

PRIZED by Caraugh M. O'Brien: I know, I know. I've sang the praises of BIRTHMARKED and PRIZED from here to the moon. But seriously! I do not think enough people read these books. And they are brilliant in a way that nothing else is.

A bit about Prized: Striking out into the wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives—only to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women rule the men who drastically outnumber them and a kiss is a crime.

I mean, a KISS is a CRIME? Like I said, you really need to read it.

Looking forward to:
PARTIALS by Dan Wells: The title alone has me intrigued, and since it's a rule of mine NOT to read the back cover copy, I'm ready to dive in. Literally, as I just bought this for my Kindle yesterday. (I'll admit I bought it on the Kindle so my son and I could share it. He loves reading on that thing!)

PANDEMONIUM by Lauren Oliver: Yes, I read DELIRIUM. Yes, I liked it -- especially the ending. That is SO my kind of ending. And I can't wait to see where we get to go in the second book. I'm practically salivating for it. But I held out and bought this book in hardcover. It'll be here soon, I hope. (But not soon enough.)

So what have you read recently that you loved? What are you wishing would hurry up and get published already?

The science fiction market is still a boys' club.  That's essentially what a male science fiction writer told his audience at a local conference earlier this year. (I paraphrase; he didn't say it exactly that way.) He was talking about short fiction in particular. Some of the participants objected, throwing out names like Elizabeth Bear and Connie Willis. My gut told me the speaker was right, though. I started out writing for mainstream / adult short fiction markets, and I attended workshops and cons in the past that were pretty much male-dominated. But it was refreshing to hear an established, male, Nebula-nominated science fiction writer (and editor) admit this. My gut also told me the opposite must be true of the young adult SF/F short fiction market. After all, the majority of young adult novelists are women. (Or at least it seems like it. Look at us: two guys and eight women.) So I decided to do a gut-check and investigate both of those assumptions a little. (Cuz you know what they say about assumptions.)

First, the adult side.  Broad Universe collected some interesting numbers in the late 90’s and early-to-mid 2000’s.  In a nutshell, women were underrepresented in all aspects of science fiction—from short fiction to novels to awards—but that representation was improving over that time.

Then, in articles for the SFWA Bulletin and later Strange Horizons, Sue U. Linville looked into the short fiction aspect a little further in 2002 and again in 2007.  She gathered submission data from the big four magazines: Asimovs, Realms of Fantasy, Analog, and Fantasy and Science Fiction. She found that, in 2001, women authors made up 19 – 33% of the short fiction submissions for these magazines. (The higher submission rate was not surprisingly for Realms of Fantasy; the lowest for Analog.) However, in the same year, women made up 38% of the SFWA membership. (This doesn't, of course, count women SF/F writers who weren't members.) After considering several possiblities, her conclusion was that women were underrepresented in the major magazines because they were NOT submitting. This could be for any number of reasons, such as a subconscious bias. (Linville found little statistical difference between whether it was a male and female editors doing the buying, btw.) She followed up the study again in 2007 and found that women were still underrepresented. And once again she concluded  that “lack of participation by women remains the clear villain.”

This was five years ago. It would be interesting to follow up to see if women are submitting more and being published more in these magazines. Or to what are now considered the major short fiction markets—such as Tor.com. (Unfortunately, Realms of Fantasy closed up shop late last fall.)

However, if you look at the 2011 Nebula nominations, it seems women are reasonably well represented today, at least in terms of awards:

· Novels: 4 of 6 written by women

· Novellas: 4 of 6

· Novelettes: 3 of 7

· Short Stories: 3 of 7

· Andre Norton: 7 of 8

You probably noticed this last one. Nearly 88% of the novels nominated for the Andre Norton award—which is specifically for YA science fiction—were written by women. (And, btw, Andre Norton was, you guessed it, a woman.) I don’t how many female YA science fiction novelists there are as compared to men, but about 70% of Locus Magazine’s recommended YA novels last year were written by women.

So, you'd think more women submitted YA science fiction / fantasy short stories than men do.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to compare the adult and young adult short fiction markets. The YA/MG market has only one (that I’m aware of) pro-paying, SFWA-listed magazine for teens / tweens that only publishes science fiction. Odyssey. And it’s primarily a science magazine that also publishes fiction. Cicada and Cricket will publish science fiction and fantasy, but that’s not their primary focus. These are the only SFWA-qualifying markets for young adult fiction.  (If there are other pro-paying young adult science fiction short markets, please let me know! I didn't look at anthologies because they're usually a one time deal.)

BUT, here’s the rub. The editor of Odyssey told me (in a totally unscientific, off-the-cuff e-conversation) that she gets far more short story submissions from men than women. And the anthology the magazine just put out features five men and three women. (Full disclosure: I’m one of those three.) Interestingly, though, the magazine gets more non-fiction queries from women. Go figure.

So, maybe it’s not a YA vs. adult market thing like I thought. Maybe women are not submitting as many short stories (science fiction / fantasy, at least) as men. Period.

Maybe. (I can’t really draw a conclusion because of my shoddy methodology!)

Go forth and submit those short stories anyway! (And next month I'll talk about how to do it.) If you don't even knock on the door of the boys' club, how do expect to get inside?

What do you folks think? Why do fewer women submit science fiction / fantasy short stories than men do?