BRAVE NEW GIRLS: TALES OF HEROINES WHO HACK Cover Reveal

Today, I’m revealing the cover and story line-up for BRAVE NEW GIRLS: TALES OF HEROINES WHO HACK, coming July 2018! This YA sci-fi anthology (edited by sci-fi authors Paige Daniels and Mary Fan) features stories about girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)… Girls who hack not just computers, but whatever puzzles come their way, using their smarts to save the day. It’s got sci-fi mysteries, cyberpunk, space adventures, and more! Proceeds from sales of the anthology will be donated to the Society of Women Engineers scholarship fund.

And without further ado, here’s the cover!

 

Stories in the anthology (in alphabetical order by title):

The Alchemist's Daughter by Selenia Paz

The Altered Avatar by Mary Fan

Attack on Aegis by Paige Daniels

Becoming a World Builder by Valerie Hunter

Data Recovery by Nicholas Jennings

Discord on Harmonia by M.L.D. Curelas

The Experiment Called Life by Halli Gomez

False Messiahs by Josh Pritchett

Impossible Odds by A.A. Jankiewicz

In Cyberia, Avatar Controls You by Jeremy Rodden

In the Shadow of Zyrcon by Joanna Schnurman

Inmate C87 by Kay Dominguez

Life Hack by Aaron Rosenberg

Login by Jennifer Lee Rossman

Moon Girl by Jennifer Chow

My Other Tree House Is a Rocket Ship by Russ Colchamiro

The Power of Five by Jenifer Purcell Rosenberg

Pyramid Scheme by Jamie Krakover

Sea-Stars and Sand Dollars by Lyssa Chiavari

Second Sun by Jorge Rustrian

ShockWired by Tash McAdam

Sword & Shield by Jelani Akin Parham

Twisted Brick by M.J. Moores

ADD IT ON GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38621003-brave-new-girls

SIGN UP FOR THE RELEASE DAY MAILING LIST: http://eepurl.com/bgBmvD

VISIT THE BRAVE NEW GIRLS WEBSITE: http://bravenewgirls.weebly.com/

Brave New Girls: Stories of Tales of Heroines Who Hack is the third volume of the Brave New Girls anthology series. The first two, Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls and Gadgets (2015) and Brave New Girls: Stories of Girls Who Science and Scheme (2017) have so far raised thousands of dollars for the Society of Women Engineers Scholarship fund. Find them on Amazon.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Paige Daniels is the pen name of Tina Closser. By day she works as an Electrical Engineer and Mom mushing her kids from gymnastics and violin practice. After the kids go to bed, she rocks out with her headphones turned to eleven and cranks out books. She is an uber science geek. If she wasn't married to the most terrific guy in the world, she would be a groupie for Adam Baldwin. Her books include Non-Compliance: The Sector, Non-Compliance: The Transition, and Non-Compliance: Equilibrium.

Mary Fan is a hopeless dreamer, whose mind insists on spinning tales of “what if.” As a music major in college, she told those stories through compositions. Now, she tells them through books—a habit she began as soon as she could pick up a pencil. And what stories she has! Currently, she has three series in progress and likes to think that she has even more in her bag. Her books include Starswept, the Jane Colt trilogy, the Firedragon novellas, and the Fated Stars novellas.

Why I Fight For Women in STEM

This world has a problem. Well many in fact, but one of the ones I'm most equipped to deal with is the war against women in STEM. It's a fight I've been in my whole life but only recently really started finding my voice for. And when I see women in STEM facing adversity it really grinds my gears. I've been there. It's a horrible place to be. It makes you want to quit. It's really REALLY hard to find your voice and the best way to speak up. To even know it's okay to say something without fear of repercussion.

And I have to say an interesting thing happened when I started speaking up. Rather than people telling me to shut up as I suspected might happen, people started thanking me. Thanking me for saying something and for saying it eloquently. And the weirdest part of all, they told me to keep speaking up. So I have.

And when I woke up this morning to a tweet from one of the seniors on the robotics team I mentor, I couldn't stay silent.
She tweeted this article: https://www.nytimes.com/…/silicon-valley-men-backlash-gende…
with the caption "Welp wish me luck"

It pains me that young women excited about engineering not only have to see this stuff, but also STILL have to think about how to handle situations like this before they even enter college, let alone the workplace. And it's horrible that women today still have to deal with this kind of Bullshit.Yep I said BULLSHIT. Because that's exactly what it is.

This young lady is one of the brightest programmers I have ever met, and programming was not even on her radar until she joined the robotics team 3 years ago. She is almost completely self taught and has come so far. Now she is looking at it as a major and a career. To see this excitement from a confident young woman waiver in the slightest bit breaks my heart.

THIS is why I mentor. This is why I wont be silent. And this is why I keep fighting. Because people STILL don't realize the opposition women in STEM face. It shouldn't be like this. And I fight so that one day it won't be. In the meantime, I'm glad I have other strong women I can band together with, and I'm glad I can inspire the next generation of strong women in STEM. If you have the opportunity to inspire young women in STEM, support them and fight for them. Help them find a voice where they don't have one.

This is why I fight for women in STEM, not just because I am one, but for the future. We need women in STEM. We need diverse voices. It's how we will ultimately learn, grow, and be more innovative as a society. Every person has a unique background. Embrace those differences around you and rise to the top as a group. One persons differences does not prevent you from reaching your goals.

I repeat: ONE PERSON'S DIFFERENCES DOES NOT PREVENT YOU FROM REACHING YOUR GOALS.

Work together and achieve those goals together.

And if you're a women in STEM feeling lost, without a voice, or at their wits end, know that I'm here for you. Know that's I've been there. And know that we can fight it and make it better. In the meantime, let's talk about it, let's support each other, and let's win this fight.

NEWS and Awesome Things

Hey everyone... I know it's been a hot minute since I've last blogged. Sorry about that. The end of 2015 and all of 2016 was quite the busy year. Lots of life changes and family happenings. And in addition to all of that, I've been hard at work planning a regional conference for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) which is in 3 days! EEK!

And oddly enough my awesome news has something to do with SWE. I love happy coincidences!

All right I'll stop stalling. The big news...

My sci fi short story Arch Nemesis about a girl trying to thwart her arch nemesis who has a secret lab underneath the St. Louis Arch is going to be PUBLISHED! My story will be included with a whole bunch of awesome other stories in an anthology titled BRAVE NEW GIRLS: Stories of Girls who Science and Scheme which features young women with a knack for STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math)--Girls who engineer, tinker, hack, and more, using their smarts to save the day. It’s got space operas, sci-fi mysteries, steampunk, cyberpunk, all kinds of punk!

Sounds pretty cool right?

Even better...

OH YES, THERE'S MORE!

Proceeds from the anthology will go towards to the Society of Women Engineers scholarship fund! See I told you it had something to do with SWE.

I'm so excited to be part of something that will give back to an organization that has helped me so much in my engineering career.


AND...


Yes, there's even more.


I know I can't believe all this awesome all at once.


I've got the cover reveal for BRAVE NEW GIRLS right here on my blog!


So check out the amazing cover to BRAVE NEW GIRLS: Stories of Girls who Science and Scheme.

 Isn't that an amazing cover?


AND...


Oh yes, there's still even more news...


Check out the awesome lineup for the anthology!

Stories in the anthology (in alphabetical order by title):

The 17th Quadrennial Intergalactic Neo-Cultural Expo and Science Fair by Jeanne Kramer-Smyth

The Adventure of the Brass Lamp by Margaret Curelas

Arch Nemesis by Jamie Krakover

The Babysitting Job: A Robot Repair Girl Adventure by Josh Pritchett

The Case of the Missing Sherlock by Mary Fan

Chasing the Copper Dragon by Karissa Laurel

Circus in the Sky by Lisa Toohey

Dangerous Territory by Holly Schofield

The Experimental Bug – First Test by Jelani-Akin Parham

Hack by Evangeline Jennings

In a Whole New Light by Michelle Leonard

The Last Android by Paige Daniels

Let Androids Eat Cake by Meg Merriet

The Maker’s Handbook by George Ebey

The Non-Existence of Gravity by Steph Bennion

Nova by Stephen Landry

Our Very Respected and Always Benevolent Leader by Kay Dominguez

Scilla’s Monster by Elisha Betts

Skyris by A.A. Jankiewicz

Sweet Emotion by Bryna Butler

The Swiss Cheese Model by Eric Bakutis

The Verne Shot by Brandon Draga

ADD IT ON GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34197584-brave-new-girls?ac=1&from_search=true

SIGN UP FOR THE RELEASE DAY MAILING LIST: http://eepurl.com/bgBmvD

VISIT THE BRAVE NEW GIRLS WEBSITE: http://bravenewgirls.weebly.com/

Brave New Girls: Stories of Girls Who Science and Scheme is the second volume of the Brave New Girls anthology series. The first, Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls and Gadgets was released in June 2015 and has so far raised thousands of dollars for the Society of Women Engineers Scholarship fund. Find it on Amazon.


Be sure to pick up your copy in August 2017! It's going to be an incredible anthology!

The Only Girl in the Room

This week I spent time in two all day meetings that were long and exhausting. But on the first day it didn’t take me more than five minutes to realize something significant about the group. I was the only female engineer in the room. Not just engineer, the only female. Sure we had a female office administrator setup the meeting (and that’s a discussion for a whole other day), but when she left, I was the lone female. The only girl in the room.

Now I have to say in general the divide in engineering is getting much better. In the last couple years my group alone has more than doubled its number of female engineers from two to five. And this past summer we had two female interns. Sounds awesome right? Not quite. In a growing group of thirty five plus engineers, this is not an accurate representation of the world. When you go to the grocery store or the mall or the gas station you don’t look up and say hey I’m the only female here. So why is that the case in a large engineering corporation? And what message does this send to up and coming females seeking out technical fields?

Without a single person opening their mouth, the room says, women aren’t welcome. Now I’m not saying that’s actually the case. Every person in the room respects me as an engineer—a respect that I unfortunately had to work long and hard to earn. And on the surface, they don’t treat me any differently than anyone else. But there are comments that sometimes inadvertently alienate me as a female. And as the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. So in a room full of men, how do we show women that they are welcome? Because when I’m the sole female representative, I don’t even have to notice that I’m alone to feel that pressure to prove myself. To prove that I know what I’m talking about, to prove that I’m good enough, to prove that I belong. And that is exhausting.

All it takes is the realization that I’m alone, for a minority to go to that place where they feel isolated in a room full of people. To feel like they don’t belong. Like they aren’t qualified. And as a society I think we can send a better message just by changing the dynamics of a room. I’m not saying hire someone or bring them into a room to fill a quota. We should be hiring the best and the brightest no question. But just being aware of there’s a problem is a huge first step. Realizing that sometimes the uneven dynamics create isolation that may not be visible on the surface. And showing the future of STEM fields that this is the reality right now, but it doesn’t have to continue to be this way.

Women are strong enough, smart enough, and are qualified enough to fill the room. We belong. We shouldn’t let the look of a room tell us otherwise. We shouldn’t give up just because we are alone. One day we can change the look of the room. One day I will look up and realize, I’m not the only girl in the room.