Hi, I’m Meredith! I write lgbt+ science fiction/fantasy and romance, and as you may have heard, my publisher has, tragically, closed. In the time since then, my wife Aveline and I have been hard at work getting everything back up as self-published work, and while it’s not all up yet, it’s getting there!
The following books are back up and available for purchase as ebooks (paperbacks not yet available)!
Smoke Signals (Urban fantasy, romance, M/M, dragon, billionaire) - A harried CSR for a games distributor gets put in charge of the video game collection of a grumpy and self-centered billionaire who is a literal dragon. At least the dragon is cute… in an apex predator sort of way. Includes soft cats, cooking shows, and knitting! Fun and upbeat.-Buy here
Beauty and Cruelty (Urban fantasy, romance, F/F (side M/M and F/M/F)) - The Evil Fairy joins Sleeping Beauty in her (kind of meta) plan to save their people. Fairy tale endings? In THIS economy? Featuring Woke Beauty, polyamorous swans, & people caught in a capital-S Story. Upbeat & adventurous. (Rainbow Awards 2016 Winner Best Lesbian Debut; 2nd place Best Lesbian Fantasy Romance.) - Buy here
Empty Vessels (Paranormal, urban fantasy, romance, M/M, polyamorous, eerie) - A psychic young man knows he has to overcome his anxieties to protect the local monsters from something terrifying lurking in the night. Along the way, he finds romance in unlikely places, between the ghost that keeps him company and the deer-antlered man running the mysterious antique shop. Monster kissing, flirty horned boys, mindscapes, and creepy dolls. Now with new cover by @rubydart! -Buy here
The Cybernetic Tea Shop (Retrofuture sci-fi, romance, asexual homoromantic F/F) - A mechanic with a bad case of wanderlust meets a homebound robot stuck in the past. In accepting the things they cannot change and finding the courage to change the ones they can, both of them need to understand what it means to ‘move on’. Tea, AI, and kindness. Soft and warm.-Buy here
Only Human (Paranormal, romance, zombies but not gross, necromancy, M/M) - When an excitable human nerd gets hit with a necromantic curse, he finds himself getting close to his doctor’s receptionist, a kindly frankensteinian zombie with body issues. It’ll definitely take some communication to make this unusual relationship work. Coffee shop dates, curses, would-be mystery writers, and fans loving fans! Sweet and steamy.-Buy here
How Saeter Robbed the Underworld (Fantasy, mythology, romance, M/M, trickster) - After a hard day, a young man’s fathers tell him a strangely relevant story about messy relationship between two demigods, children of the gods of Envy and of Love, and how they trick the underworld out of a very special prize. Found family, daring rescues, shape-shifting tricksters, and Norse-inspired mythology.-Buy here
You can learn more about my and Aveline’s writing overatour website to keep up to date about what’s out and what’s yet to come, or follow our joint writing twitter for news about what we’re working on, links to new releases (or re-releases), and similar things! And hey, feel free to follow our personal twitters too –meredithakatzandavelinereynard!
Thanks to everyone for the support and love during this rough time. Whether you buy our books, leave a rating or review, or just share this post, you’re being a huge help. We’re looking forward to bringing you all new, exciting things soon!
The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall is a fantastical, weird retelling of a Sherlock Holmes story. The narrator–the Watson parallel–is a trans man named John Wyndham who is a veteran of a time war, while the Holmes parallel is an absolutely ridiculous sorceress named Shaharazad Haas. This book is loosely based on “A Scandal in Bohemia” and follows Wyndham recounting when he and Haas were hired by an ex-girlfriend of Haas, Eirene Viola, to find the identity of an individual trying to blackmail her into calling off her upcoming wedding. The major twist here is the fact that this takes place in an absolutely wild world that includes magic, time travel, and literally cosmic horrors. There are vampires. There are sorceresses. There is planetary and interdimensional travel. There are eldritch abominations. All of this is an improvement to Doyle’s stories, really.
This story doesn’t hold too dearly to the Sherlockian storylines and concepts, so if you aren’t a fan of Sherlock Holmes or aren’t familiar with them, that shouldn’t be a turn off from the book. If you understand the general concept of Sherlock Holmes, then I think that is enough for people to understand what they’ll need to understand going in.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book a lot. It wasn’t heavy in material and it was just a fun book to read. Honestly, the word I’d use to describe it is “wacky.” There’s a lot of worldbuilding, but none of that worldbuiling is rather deep. That was one of the biggest hang ups I had when getting into the story. I would read a section and then feel like I needed to reread it because I hadn’t taken in the sheer amount of worldbuilidng that had happened in that section, but that is largely the point, I think. You don’t really need to understand or take in every single detail that gets dropped, because it’s not really the content that is important there, but the ideas that the content is trying to give you. Once I accepted that, it was much easier to get into the book and enjoy it. We get taken from scene to scene, setting to setting, bizarre concept to bizarre concept pretty quickly and don’t linger on any of them for too long. While I definitely enjoy books that are deeper in exploring what they put out, I think this book specifically really accomplishes what it’s trying to do better by not lingering anywhere for too long. Especially since this is supposedly being written by Wyndham as a series of installments for an in-world publication.
As for the queer/LGBT content, there is a whole lot of it. As I mentioned in my description, our narrator, John, is a trans man and he reveals that pretty much immediately (literally on the second page). I believe he’s also attracted to men, though I don’t remember his sexuality being brought up that often. Haas–our Sherlock Holmes–is queer in some way but I’m not sure its ever specified how. I’ve seen some reviewers saying that she was pansexual but I don’t remember that being specifically said in the text. Regardless, she has past relationships with women, and that is literally the motivation for one of her exes to hire her. That ex, Eriene Viola, is also sapphic (obviously) and is engaged to a woman. Throughout the course of the story you also see some of her previous romances, but talking about that too much you entail spoilers.
All in all, this is a very queer book and its very blatantly so. If you’re looking for a queer book that isn’t super romance heavy, then this is probably a good one. There’s a little bit of that, but it doesn’t involve the main characters. The blurb on the front cover calls it queer and, for once, that promise feels fulfilled by the book itself.
In terms of content that might turn you off, there’s only really one thing that might be off putting. Warning for transphobia here: Wyndham comes from a society that doesn’t accept his gender and we don’t ever really see him within that society except in background information that he provides. He doesn’t get too detailed about that but it’s present. There’s also one scene in particular where someone (who is basically the equivalent of a cop) tries to order him to deadname himself. He doesn’t and he reads the hell out of the woman trying to get him to do it, but it’s a scene that happens. The transphobia is portrayed as completely wrong, but it is present briefly in the book. I am pretty sure that this is the worse it gets, and as I’m not a trans person, I’m not going to try to judge how affecting this scene may or may not be.
Overall, I would recommend the book, I enjoyed it a lot. It’s not my new favorite book or anything, but its a fun queer read and also a standalone book, though I could see sequels coming out eventually. If you want a weird, fun, queer book that isn’t going to emotionally exhaust you, this is definitely one to pick up.
LGBT Rep: sapphic (I’m assuming lesbian) pov character, lesbian love interest/major character, gay man pov character
Spoiler-Free Review:
Ho-ly crap my dudes, I finally did it. I finally finished this absolute unit of book, and guess what? I really loved it a lot. This is exactly a book I’ve wanted for forever. A really killer high fantasy epic that also just happens to be really gay at times.
The main romance in the book is a f/f slow burn (yes, an honest to god lesbian slow burn), and I went in pretty much only knowing that, not even knowing who. At times I was definitely Sherlocking every single female character trying to figure out who the gays were, and I was pretty sure I knew who they were pretty on, but it takes a while for it to get going. When it does though…they sure do go, huh?
There is also an older gay male point of view character who’s gayness is pretty important to his story and motives, though (and this is a slight spoiler but it comes up pretty early on) the love of his life died some time before the story began.
This is a long, long book, and the Gays have issues throughout, some of it stemming somehow from them being gay or from their gay relationship conflicting against the society. Even with that, once their relationship really starts, there isn’t much in the way of outright homophobia. It’s hard to explain exactly, but there is the sense that being gay isn’t normal or completely accepted in the society, but also the relationship is pretty accepted once it gets kicked off. And the one plot issue that comes from someone trying to stop the relationship still doesn’t really stem from it being a gay relationship. It’s hard for me to explain further without going into spoilers.
But yeah, the gayness isn’t hidden by any means, but it also isn’t always in focus. It interweaves with the plot for sure, but the central plot isn’t about it by any means. It’s very much a high fantasy story with a high fantasy plot, and it just so happens that the main romance is f/f.
Synopsis: Honestly there is so much going on that I’m not sure how to set it up, so I’m just going to copy and paste the official synopsis from goodreads:
“The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.”
The Good: You get the sense of the threat of homophobia without ever actually having to face it. The romance is cute and is the opposite of rushed. All of the definitely defined gay characters feel like fully fleshed out characters. They have motives. They have good and bad qualities, and aren’t perfect but also are never demonized. They do good and bad things. Dare I say, they are treated like actual people?
What Might Hinder You from Reading It: You are utterly intimidated by the size of the book. It’s really hefty. You don’t like high fantasy. You don’t like dragons. You don’t like monarchy stories (which I often don’t but I still liked this).
Would I Recommend It?: YES. YES MY GOD YES.
Now for the Spoilers:
There are a few things I want to spoil for anyone that is interested in spoilers or who have specific concerns?
1) Yes, the gays all survive to the end and have mostly happy endings.
2) The main couple has a somewhat bittersweet ending that I don’t want to spoil, but it isn’t immediately happy for them. There is the promise of them getting their happy ending in the future, but there is still time before that will happen.
3) It’s almost comedic how every single time there is a major development in the f/f relationship, SOMETHING HAPPENS and there is some threat or complication that must be dealt with. They always do deal with it, but it always means that they are in some way apart for a length of time.
Copper Thronehas finally hit the shelves! Pick up the final part of this trilogy of seafaring, wlw and mlm solidarity, the found family trope, a magical school, sword and sorcery, sea monsters, and added poly and aro rep if you are looking for your next diverse read!
I won’t include a link since the tumblr algorithm will bury the post and I’m sorry that I’m mainly selling through am*zon but it’s the only way a self-pubbed author can make some money right now.
Well then. Permission to whinge? I just ended a truly painful and shitty day with finding out I didn’t get the job I interviewed for. (I was qualified, had the right experience, and had spent a whole week prepping so I don’t quite know how I managed to mess it up, but never mind.)
If anyone has any money left over and would like a book, I’d be so grateful if you’d pop over to Amazon and order one of my books. (Just search for Emma Sterner-Radley.) They’re fantasy and have queer characters of all kinds. Some of the books are YA and some adult. Some are series and some are standalone. I’m happy to give you recs if you tell me what you like. I just need some good news today and some sort of income coming in.
I’m sure your wife has already told you this, but as a reminder, you didn’t mess anything up.
Anyway to the rest of you. Emma’s a solid person who writes solid stories. There’s a bad ass red haired pirate in one. AND I LOVE HER VERY MUCH. But, yeah. Give Emma’s books a chance, she truly is a very talented and gifted writer.
And if you need convincing I will give one person 5 bucks through paypal so you can go buy the Silver Beasts ebook, which is part one of the mapmaking magicians series. I think that’s a nice enticement and the rest of the series would cost you no more than 10 bucks. (It’s complete, btw.)
Uhm just message me and like, maybe only if you’re a fellow person who can barely make it through the month and could use a pick-me-up.
I agree with everything DC said, and to add my grain of sand, whomever gets those 5 bucks, I’ll give them 10 more to buy the other 2 books.
Oh wow. I’m actually a bit teary reading this! I know your financial situation @delirious-comfort so this is beyond generous and I’ll have to pay you back! Thank you for your offer too, @yaminoendo . I know we don’t know each other that well so I’m even more blown away by your kindness.
Thank you both so very much and profound thanks to anyone who bought a book or signal boosted this post!
I know @delirious-comfort will agree with me on this so, no need to thank us. We’re only giving back for all the lovely words you’ve gifted to all of us, and what better way to do it that giving someone the chance to visit the amazing worlds you’ve crafted and get to know the superb characters you brought to life with your incredible writing.
You’re a true wordsmith amongst wordsmiths, with a real talent to construct whole worlds that feel real and fill them with characters brimming with life, a talent that in my experience only a few have and know how to use. So don’t feel bad about being proud of your work, you totes deserve it.
Agreed. My offer is still open and I know there’s someone out there who’s like, “I want this but I don’t deserve it,” or “I’m sure it’s already been given away,” (and it should’ve been) but this message is especially for you. Hop in my DM, don’t be shy, I’m very nice, and say you would like to read the book and I’ll give you the 5 bucks. Couldn’t be easier.
Thank you both so very much! And thanks to anyone who decided to buy a book.
