Lionesses in the Rain
I had an unusual problem compiling this issue. I strive for balance in crafting each edition: half science fiction/half fantasy, half cheerful/half frightening or thought provoking, varying lengths, varying voices, and characters that span various life stages. And while I hit most of those notes, I failed in one of them. I don’t even try to count my representation of women writers because we seem to attract them without effort. Perhaps it’s because we have a mostly female staff. But in this edition I had to look hard for male writers or sympathetic male characters.
We open with a tremendously powerful fantasy from a female Greek author: Christine Lucas. Her “Moths in a Fluttering Heart” talks about—for want of a better term—women’s issues: misogyny, abuse, and a faithfulness to domestic things that turns more than one tide. It’s also a story about prejudice, neurodivergence, cruelty, justice, and mercy; these are universal things, but the point of view is feminine.
“Moonlight and Roses” is a tiny little clockwork romance that I believe will probably appeal to mostly-female readers. There was no military fiction to balance it, but the fantasy “The Living Must Pass” does contain a sorcerous warlord. It, alone in this issue, has a male writer—Tom Howard—and he brings a troupe of fantastic male characters to life. The author of “The Procedure,” P.A. Cornell, is female but her theme of aging together with a mate is universal and had the added bonus of sympathetic older characters. The author of “265 Days” is also female, where Emily Dietrich spins a terrifying science fictional tale. And Tammy Komoff, author of the haunting “The Midnight Commuter,” highlights the love between a father and a son.
Our authors in this edition are all lions, and most of them are lionesses. Their characters—male and female—deal with adversity well. They are lions and lionesses in the rain.
Hear them roar.
—Wendy S. Delmater
