‘Googie Girls’ Publication now Available for Pre Order
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As a follow up to the premiere Fake Geek Girls Like Us publication ‘Icons and Idols’, ‘Googie Girls’ looks at science fiction in a diverse, queer and feminist perspective.
Googie Girls a 20-page full-color zine exploring science fiction! Googie Girls features art, stories, and essays that share ideas on aliens, the future, and your favourite sci fi characters.
You have 10 days left to pre-order and help support artists and writers across the globe!
New reward level acquired! You all have been amazing and thank you for supporting Googie Girls so far. I have some exciting news! The lovely JM Frey - Author, Actor, Professional Geek @scifrey has kindly donated a digital bundle of their books to our IndieGoGo. You can get all 3 books, including one that's not even released to the public yet! How do you redeem this perk? Well if you go to our Indiegogo: https://igg.me/at/googiegirls/x and contribute $160, you get the JM Frey perk bundle and a copy of Googie Girls! We will both email you with all the details after you pledge. Let's get this publication made!
Tada! Very fun commission for the lovely @scifrey for her upcoming book “Nine-Tenths” a super cute fantasy romance set in the fan favorite of all Tumblr writers-the coffee shop. It’s got pining bisexuals, charming Welsh dragon guys and a heck of a Meet Awkward xD
The book is dropping on Wattpad on January 13th and you should 1000% check it out!
J.M. Frey is an author, voice actor, and lapsed academic. Her novel "A Woman of the Sea" was named a winner o...
Guest post by Laurie McLean, Partner at Fuse Literary. Laurie represents the wonderful REUTS author, J.M. Frey.
When I first read The Untold Tale by J.M. Frey, I was amazed at both its audacity and its storytelling energy. The characters were like none I’d read about in an epic fantasy novel. The hero was the spymaster for the king masquerading as a fuddy-duddy second son whose older brother was a hero of legendary proportions. The heroine did not fit into preconceived notions of women in this fairy tale world. There was also something very mysterious about her background that we don’t find out about until mid-way through the book, so I won’t spoil it here.
Suffice to say that I loved this book and I set about trying to sell it to eager science fiction and fantasy editors in New York. I pitched the book and they all wanted to take a look. Months passed, as they do during the submission process. Then the rejections began to amass. It was too “meta.” The hero was not “alpha” enough. It was too long. It was non-standard. And the always popular and very general, “It’s not right for my list.”
I don’t know about all of you, but I am tired of reading the same old tropes in my sword and sorcery or quest fantasy novels. I search for new tales and new ways of telling them. I look for diversity in both characters and setting. I want the thrill of the adventure, but in a new way. That’s why I loved J.M. Frey’s The Untold Tale, as well as the second book which is launching in December 2016: The Forgotten Tale.
Frey strives for the diverse and unexpected in her books. This made it difficult for me to sell it to mainstream publishers who wanted more of the same that had sold so well in the past.
Frustrated beyond belief that I was unable to sell this series, I was giving a keynote at a writers conference in Seattle, and I mentioned that everyone’s path to publishing was different. I urged the hopeful writers in the room not to compare themselves to successful authors who had come before them (although everyone does), and I told the tale of my difficulties in selling a book of my heart.
Afterwards, as I was getting coffee (it was cold in Seattle that fall), two young women approached me and said that they appreciated my speech. They wanted to know more about the book I was having trouble selling. So we sat down and I waxed on and on about The Untold Tale and why I thought the quality of the writing and storytelling was superb, and how I couldn’t believe I hadn’t been able to sell it. One of them asked for my card, and as we exchanged information, she told me that she was an editor at a small-but-growing publisher in the Pacific Northwest called REUTS Publishing.
Bottom line: At that very conference, Kisa Whipkey asked to read The Untold Tale. She saw what I saw in that manuscript and bought not only book one, but all three books in the series plus several additional novellas, short stories and other bonus material in that world that would accompany the main event. Not only that, she also liked the second series J.M. Frey had shown me, about the first female pilot in a mechanized society reminiscent of World War I, The Skylark’s Song, and she eventually bought that as well.
The Forgotten Tale, the middle book in the series, is one of those rare breeds of middle books that actually carries its own weight. It is a rousing story in and of itself, and a worthy sequel to The Untold Tale. It deals with an apocalypse most of us readers would surely find horrific: the classic stories of our world are disappearing, and Forsyth Turn and his wife Pip must solve this mystery before all stories are erased forever. THE HORROR!
I hope I’ve intrigued you sufficiently that you’ll pick up a copy of The Untold Tale and its successor, The Forgotten Tale. J.M. Frey is just about done with the final book in the series, The Silenced Tale, and I am sure it will be equally enthralling.
‘Til then, I will remain a champion for all tales, comfortable and itchy, magical and harshly realistic, epically long or quickly consumed. To the bookshelves!
The Forgotten Tale by J. M. Frey (The Accidental Turn #2)
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: REUTS Publications
Published in: 2016
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley
Official Synopsis:
Forsyth Turn has finally become a hero—however reluctantly. But now that Lucy Piper has married him and they’ve started a family in her world, his adventuring days are behind him. Yet not all is as it should be. Beloved novels are disappearing at an alarming rate, not just from the minds of readers like Pip, but from bookshelves as well. Almost as if they had never been. Almost like magic.
Forsyth fears that it is his fault—that Pip’s childhood tales are vanishing because he, a book character, has escaped his pages. But when he and Pip are sucked back into The Tales of Kintyre Turn against their will, they realize that something much more deadly and dire is happening. The stories are vanishing from Forsyth’s world too. So Forsyth sets out on a desperate journey across Hain to discover how, and why, the stories are disappearing… before their own world vanishes forever.
In this clever follow-up to The Untold Tale, The Forgotten Tale questions what it means to create a legacy, and what we owe to those who come after us.
My Review:
I was lucky enough to get an ARC of The Forgotten Tale right after finishing the first book in the series, The Untold Tale, so I was able to dive right in. Let me tell you that this book does not disappoint. As far as sequels go, I will say that I believe this book to just as strong and compelling as the first in the series.
The Forgotten Tale continues to explore themes of readership and authorship, questioning the idea of story itself. It really explores the relationship that readers form with stories. The book also openly acknowledges and pushes back against popular fantasy tropes, which, for someone who reads a lot of fantasy, was delightful. I could definitely see myself teaching this book in a fantasy class, a women and gender studies class, or even a class about narrative.
One of my other favorite things about The Forgotten Tale is the diversity. It is rare to find a book that so seamlessly integrates diverse characters into the narrative. Nearly every major character is marginalized in some way. The book is especially good at critiquing the sexism so present in much of classic fantasy. I found this story to be incredibly empowering as a woman. I really look forward to reading the third book in the series.
“I’m allowed to want it.”: The Untold Read-Along Part 5
Welcome to The Untold Tale read-along! The Untold Tale by J.M. Frey is the first book in the Accidental Turn series, the second book of which, The Forgotten Tale, will be released on December 6th. To prep for book two, we’re sharing a ten-part series that will be part recap, part review, and part discussion of the book that has been called the “most important work of fantasy written in 2015.”
If you want to read along with us and avoid the SPOILERS that will follow, you can pick up your copy of The Untold Tale from major online retailers.
About the book
Forsyth Turn is not a hero. Lordling of Turn Hall and Lysse Chipping, yes. Spymaster for the king, certainly. But hero? That’s his older brother’s job, and Kintyre Turn is nothing if not legendary. However, when a raid on the kingdom’s worst criminal results in the rescue of a bafflingly blunt woman, oddly named and even more oddly mannered, Forsyth finds his quaint, sedentary life is turned on its head.
Dragged reluctantly into a quest he never expected, and fighting villains that even his brother has never managed to best, Forsyth is forced to confront his own self-shame and the demons that come with always being second-best. And, more than that, when he finally realizes where Lucy came from and why she’s here, he’ll be forced to question not only his place in the world, but the very meaning of his own existence.
Smartly crafted, The Untold Tale gives agency to the unlikeliest of heroes: the silenced, the marginalized, and the overlooked. It asks what it really means to be a fan when the worlds you love don’t resemble the world you live in, celebrates the power of the written word, challenges tropes, and shows us what happens when someone stands up and refuses to remain a secondary character in their own life.
Part One: “I assume the body is a corpse.” Chapters 1 and 2
Part Two: “Information, at last!” Chapters 3, 4, and 5
Part Three: “Your brother is a slimeball.” Chapters 6 and 7
Part Four: “It’s not cheating to know your enemy.” Chapter 8, 9, and 10
Part 5: chapters 11 and 12
V. Walker, with Cal Spivey
High off their success in obtaining the Quill that Never Dulls, Pip and Forsyth return to the taverna to celebrate. But chapter eleven starts out with Pip nearly having a panic attack, then delving into a conversation with Forsyth about race and class in the world. That conversation is shortly followed by Pip being harassed and groped by a strange man on the staircase.
The chapter ends with Pip and Forsyth having sex for the first time. It starts a little bit awkward and clumsy, as a first time between partners can be, but grows heated and passionate as Pip reveals that she’s not shy about her desire and what she needs.
But the fun doesn’t stop there. Oh no, that’s just one chapter.
Chapter twelve is a short one that finds Pip and Forsyth continuing to the next part of their quest. Pip once again confronts and dismantles a standard fantasy-genre favorite, this time by outsmarting a riddling raven.
They fall into a discussion about the relationship between Bevel and Kintyre, and the underlying homoerotic subtext between some of the greatest literary “bromances” – male friendships that are thisclose to being romantic or sexual but never quite get there, yet there’s “such strength of affection there that it reads with homosexual subtext” (p. 279). I’m sure we could all think of a few ourselves…
There is so much to unpack in these next two chapters (eleven and twelve), I don’t even know where to start. To reference a favorite, “Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much, let me sum up.”
The Untold Tale not only confronts the racism and sexism that tends to be popular within the fantasy genre, but J.M. Frey does it with panache and in a way that makes the reader want to do a fist pump in the air. It’s a masterful perspective that calls out so much of the fantasy genre about the lack of realistic diversity.
Yes, a fantasy world is just that…a fantasy. But what happens when you discover the fantasy world you’ve loved for years and used as an escape from reality is filled with the exact same class and power structures? It says that the author/world-builder isn’t as ‘uncomfortable’ with reality as perhaps is implied by writing a fantasy novel. Science fiction and fantasy can do more, imagine more, but so often does not.
Or, perhaps, the author wants to put the characters through the same tests and situations as a reader might face? But, if all the heroes in a series (or a large portion of the genre) are virtual copies of each other (see: white, able-bodied, cis, hetero, male) then how can all the potential readers feel a connection to the characters?
Answer: they can’t. Unless that’s exactly the reader that the author has in mind while writing; it puts a limitation on the experience of readers. Readers never learn to empathize with other experiences.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I read to escape and to experience situations that I would otherwise never be in. If I were to go back and re-read some of my favorites and discover issues within the narrative, I’d like to think I would start a discussion with other readers about it. And then I would expand my reading horizons.
The Untold Tale is very explicit in its call-outs. Some have complained about the blatant intersectional feminism in the taverna scene. But, really, is there any way but blatant discussion to have an impact on the othering techniques Frey calls out? My answer to that question is a loud & resounding NO. Just in case you were wondering.
As Pip puts it, “Why are the only people who are non-white also non-human?” After Forsyth tries to explain that there are “humans with darker skin down south,” Pip responds with “…All exotic others, and never the hero, eh?” *mic drop*
The taverna scene also shows us an instance of sexual harassment that is all too familiar to women and AFAB readers, where Pip is groped as she walks past a group of men on her way up to her room. I will admit that this scene got my blood boiling and it was masterfully written; having found myself in situations similar to this, Pip’s reaction is everything I wish I could have wanted from the scene.
But as affirming as Pip’s challenge to the men is, as Cal Spivey put it during a discussion, the scene that followed – when Pip and Forsyth retreat to their room and barricade the door – was heartbreakingly relatable. Any woman who has been sexually harassed or assaulted knows that, while we are confident and strong people, there is a level of fear few of us can really escape.
The next morning, Pip and Forsyth make love for the first time, an experience instigated by Pip–per her earlier request that Forsyth give her time, as well as his own inexperience. My favorite line of the chapter is Pip’s declaration: “I’m allowed to want it you know…I’m allowed to be a sexual person.”
In this section, Pip embodies one of the questions many people, especially women, deal with on a daily basis: how does the constant external sexualization, from harassers and society at large, interact with one’s own sexuality? How does it affect personal expressions of desire? Pip doesn’t want the attention of the men from the taverna and she makes her point quite clearly and eloquently; the next morning she makes it known to Forsyth that she does want his attention – and is not shy about owning her own pleasure.
Her declaration that she’s “allowed to want it” highlights one of the main struggles surrounding sexuality, desire, and sexualization: the consistent need to defend one’s choices, and the danger that can be present at that moment. Pip’s assertion of what she did not want–to be groped by strangers–was trivialized by those strangers. In a still more familiar progression, Pip’s continuing rejections of the groper were met with sexual slurs and threats of physical violence.
As she and Forsyth talk through what happened immediately after, he asks, “Don’t you deserve the adoration? Don’t you enjoy it? Is it not your right, as a woman?” In an absolutely perfect response, Pip says, “forcing me to engage when I just want to walk by…feels like grime on my skin, you know? Instead of a real compliment, which feels like…silk.”
There’s a confidence in both elements of this section, her rejection of sexual contact and her request of it, mixed with the fear and uncertainty that those she turned down would come back and take their pleasure anyway. It represents the fine line many of us are compelled to walk – one that Pip handles in a way that’s inspiring to readers.
J.M. Frey not only showcases the sexism of various popular fantasy worlds, but she created this meta-fantasy element of a Reader to confront them without hesitation, and then further deconstructs the issues during a conversation with a character of that world…the layers are astounding. It’s brilliant.
Coming up
In the next section, Pip and Forsyth tackle two of the Seven Stations, and their roles in the quest begin to solidify in a way that’s surprisingly reminiscent of…Harry Potter? Check out part seven of the Untold Read-Along, next Tuesday on A Fantastical Librarian. Part seven will cover chapters thirteen and fourteen.
The Untold Tale by JM Frey (The Accidental Turn #1)
Genre: Fantasy
Page #: 572
Publisher: Reuts Publications
Published in: 2015
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley
Official Synopsis:
Forsyth Turn is not a hero. Lordling of Turn Hall and Lysse Chipping, yes. Spymaster for the king, certainly. But hero? That's his older brother's job, and Kintyre Turn is nothing if not legendary. However, when a raid on the kingdom's worst criminal results in the rescue of a bafflingly blunt woman, oddly named and even more oddly mannered, Forsyth finds his quaint, sedentary life is turned on its head. Dragged reluctantly into a quest he never expected, and fighting villains that even his brother has never managed to best, Forsyth is forced to confront his own self-shame and the demons that come with always being second-best. And, more than that, when he finally realizes where Lucy came from and why she's here, he'll be forced to question not only his place in the world, but the very meaning of his own existence. Smartly crafted, The Untold Tale gives agency to the unlikeliest of heroes: the silenced, the marginalized, and the overlooked. It asks what it really means to be a fan when the worlds you love don't resemble the world you live in, celebrates the power of the written word, challenges tropes, and shows us what happens when someone stands up and refuses to remain a secondary character in their own life.
My Review:
There are so many things to love about this book. It’s not a regular, stereotypical fantasy book. The Untold Tale plays with a lot of well-known tropes and openly acknowledges and pushes back against them. For someone who reads a lot of fantasy, this was delightful. The book also explores the idea of story itself, and the relationship readers share with stories. It handled this in a really unique and fun way. The book also openly talks about important topics such as consent and privilege, which I’ve never seen in a fantasy book before.
The characters are all wonderfully realistic and they are all diverse. The two main characters are academics, which makes for a whole new way of going on a stereotypical fantasy quest. The romance is a delightful slow-burn. One of the main characters has a speech impediment, and the other main character is half Chinese and struggles with PTSD. There is also a male/male relationship between two of the prominent side characters.
This book is like Inkheart for adults. I could definitely see myself teaching this book in class about fantasy or even narrative theory. This story is so fresh and unique; it definitely deserves more attention from fans of high fantasy. There are also a lot of fun popular culture and nerdy easter eggs that made me happy to find, that I think any reader would find fun.
No, that’s no good, I’d spoil it. Let me wax philosophical about this book.
It isn’t what you expect. When you think you have it figured out, it isn’t that, either. And all the things you expect because you’ve read other books? It especially isn’t that.
This is probably the most intelligent and lovingly critical (or critically loving) treatise on fantasy I’ve ever read, and yet it isn’t actually a treatise at all. It’s a story. No, hear me: this is a STORY.
STORY. It follows the story to the real end, beyond where fantasy books usually stop. It’s terrifyingly practical, and the middle bits get so dark that I said, “Damn, she can’t fix this!” in the middle of our local Big and Tall store while my husband tried on swimsuits.
Hear me, reader, book-lover, story-collector: Frey fixes it. The right way. The only way. When you hit that dark part (believe me, you’ll know), keep reading. (You may need a break to curse in a department store, but that’s excusable.)
Read to the end. In fact, that quiet, gloriously non-climactic last few pages are solidly some of THE most satisfying I have ever read. They’re like a sweet ocean sound after the boom and crash of a terrible storm.
So, there: I did not spoil it. I wouldn’t dare. Get your thinking cap on, steel your heart (it’s gonna hurt), and thank the author. This Story is a hell of a ride, and I, a lifelong fantasy-lover, am deeply glad I read it.
