SL Huang

Speculative fiction author. Mathematician. Gunslinger.

News

2021 Awards Eligibility Post

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Burning Roses book cover

It’s been a rough 12 months, hasn’t it? I haven’t made of of these in a few years, but I’m trying to do better. Here are the categories I’m eligible in:

NOVELLA

  • Burning Roses, Publisher: Tor.com

NOVEL

  • Critical Point, Publisher: Tor Books

SERIES

  • The Cas Russell Series, Publisher: Tor Books

SHORT STORY

  • “The Million-Mile Sniper”, Publisher: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (also available on the SFWA forums)
  • “Add Oil”, Publisher: Avatars Inc. anthology, XPRIZE Foundation

I think that’s about it. I’m assuming it’s late enough in the season that this is going to be primarily useful to people who have already read my work, but if anyone is inclined to read one thing before the various awards nominations close, I’d recommend Burning Roses. I think it’s one of my particularly strong works overall — and it’s also now faced several instances of professional racism, which makes me pretty sad, and it helps to know that there are other people out there giving it its just consideration. Plus, the New York Times said they “hope to see [Burning Roses] on next year’s awards lists”, so I can only hope they’re prescient!

Sincerely, thank you for any thought anybody puts into considering my work.

BURNING ROSES is Out in the World

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Burning Roses book cover

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it’s out!

If Red Riding Hood were a recovering assassin and teamed up with Hou Yi the Archer from Chinese mythology…

Oh and they’re both queer, middle aged, and expert markswomen.

“Old tales are given new life in S.L. Huang’s invigorating, crossover blend of Chinese and European folk stories. The combination of fairy tale, rich storytelling, and older queer women full of scars is everything I ever wanted in a book. A delightful, otherworldly read.”—Neon Yang

Get it here!

Burning Roses is Available for Preorder!

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Burning Roses book cover

For all your dark fairy tale remix needs. This novella stars Red Riding Hood as a recovering assassin and Houyi the Archer from Chinese mythology. In my version they’re both queer, middle aged, and expert markswomen, and they team up for adventure while angsting about their pasts. Publishers Weekly says, “Huang dazzles in this dark, diverse fairy tale remix. . . . Fantasy fans won’t want to miss this” (starred review).

Preorder here! Out September 29!

2020 Virtual Appearances

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After C2E2, my first con of the year, the pandemic crashed all my planned in-person appearances. But! VIRTUAL EVENTS! You can still come “meet” me this year, and from the comfort of your own computer!

This page will be updated dynamically as my schedule solidifies.

  • Monday, April 27, all day: Come join me at r/Fantasy for a Reddit AMA! This will also have a giveaway in which 2 winners with the most interesting questions (as judged by me!) will win all three of the books in the Cas Russell series so far. The post will go up around mid-morning, and then I’ll be answering questions all day.
  • Tuesday, April 28, 1pm Central Time: Virtual signing at Worldbuilders! Preorder a book to be signed here (personalized if you want). The livestream will be on the Worldbuilders Facebook page. You can find more details here.
  • Wednesday, April 29, 10am Pacific Time: Second Life Bookclub! Join me in Second Life on Book Club Island, where I’ll be having a one-on-one interview with host Draxtor. No avatar? No problem — the book club will also be livestreamed. All details are here.
  • Friday, May 15, 4pm Mountain Time: Virtual event with Yoon Ha Lee at The Book Bungalow! We will be chatting and taking Q&A from the audience. Come hang with us! Full event details and registration info available here.
  • Saturday-Sunday May 16-17: I’m slated to be a participant at Flights of Foundry, a virtual con run by Dream Foundry. Tickets are free or by donation, and the guests of honor are FABULOUS, so come on down and give it a look! Registration is here and you can see my exact schedule here, including a reading that 15 people are already signed up for (eep!) and panels I’m doing with amazing fellow authors like Ken Liu, Becky Chambers, Suzanne Walker, and K. Tempest Bradford (and many more). My sessions:
    • Saturday, May 16, 4pm Central: “Adaptations and Remix Culture”
    • Sunday, May 17, 8am Central: Reading
    • Sunday, May 17, 11am Central: “Building Characters”
    • Sunday, May 17, 12pm Central: Kaffeeklatsch (full)
    • Sunday, May 17, 8pm Central: “#Squadgoals: Group Dynamics in Fiction”
  • Monday, May 18, 6pm Central Time: I’m at another virtual bookstore event for indie bookstore Tubby & Coo’s! Event information here. Interview and Q&A from the audience!
  • Wednesday, May 27, 10am Pacific Time: Back in the Second Life Bookclub’s virtual reality world to discuss the Avatars, Inc. anthology, along with Ann VanderMeer and Eric Desatnik. Info here!
  • Friday-Sunday June 5-7: At the Renaissance Virtual Conference! Check out the full programming here and click to register for any panels you’d like to attend! My list of panels is:
    • Friday, June 5, 6pm Eastern: “Queer Futurisms”
    • Friday, June 5, 7 pm Eastern: “Authors in Quarantine”
    • Saturday, June 6, 10am Eastern: “The Apocalypse wasn’t what we expected”
    • Saturday, June 6, 4pm Eastern: “The book was better… or was it? The art of adaptation”
    • Saturday, June 6, 7pm Eastern: “Launching a book during a global crisis”
    • Sunday, June 7, 1:30pm Eastern: “Speculating on Queer Worlds”
  • Saturday, June 13, 5pm Eastern Time: As part of TorCon, I’m going to be on a panel with other Tor authors that’s a sort of mishmash of improv and communal storytelling from prompts. It should be chaos! I hope it will be! Full schedule and links to register here.
  • Saturday, June 20, 3pm Eastern Time: I’ll be on Essence of Wonder’s live show. Check back here for more details!
  • Texas Library Association virtual panel with Bryan Washington — this has been recorded; will update when I see it’s posted.
  • June 29-August 2 New Zealand Time: Worlcon! I was there. A thing might have happened. I got my schedule too late and was in too much of a scramble to update here, sorry.
  • Tuesday, August 4, 12pm Central Time: On Worldbuilders Weekly! Catch the recording here.
  • Saturday, August 15, 11am Eastern Time: Metaverse Con panel called “Tor Presents: Chaos & Cosmos,” with Alaya Dawn Johnson, Jenn Lyons, and Ryan Van Loan, moderated by Natalie Zutter. Sorry, I was late on posting this one too, but you can catch the recording here: https://www.findthemetaverse.com/watch/71tKblrkF5U
  • Saturday, August 15, 3pm Eastern Time: Panel at ReCONvene called “Exploring the Literary Sandbox of Speculative Fiction,” with Melanie Meadors, Chris Barkley, Zig Zag Claybourne, and Julia Rios.
  • Wednesday, August 19, 7pm Eastern Time: Event at Read It Again Bookstore! Find the information here, and join us live on YouTube!
  • Wednesday, August 26, 5:30pm Central Time: Event at Front Street Books! Find it here!
  • Wednesday, September 23, 6:30pm Central Time: “Future Telling: Math and Physics are My Superpowers” — a conversation with physicist Rebecca C. Thompson about math, physics, swords, fiction, and geeking out. (Recording to come.)
  • Thursday, October 1, 7pm Eastern Time MOUNTAIN TIME: Event at Rediscovered Books. Find the information here! (Very sorry to my newsletter subscribers — I put the wrong timezone for this in the newsletter. EEK)
  • Wednesday, October 7, 6:30pm Pacific Time: Event at Ballast Books. Find the information here!
  • Saturday-Sunday October 17-18: I’m a panelist at FIYAHcon! Schedule to come.
  • Saturday, October 24: I’m a panelist at the Boston Book Festival. See me at:
    • 10:30 AM – 11:15 AM Eastern Time: “Fiction: Timeless Tales” with Andrea Hairston, Gregory Maguire, Lauren Rizzuto
    • Note that this is on the same day as Outpost Con below (this panel is at 9:30 am Central Time, so a few hours before my panels at Outpost).
  • Saturday, October 24: I’m a panelist at Outpost Con, with the following two panels:
    • 12:00 pm – 12:50 pm Central Time: Writing & Publishing: “Diversifying Available Voices” with Neil Clarke, Yoon Ha Lee, Arley Sorg
    • 5:00 pm – 5:50 pm Central Time: “Where’s My Robot Butler? Next Steps in AI Development” with Gordon Tarpley, Jamie Banks, Fon Davis
    • Note that the schedule on the site customizes to timezone, so the above times are in Central (my timezone) but they’ll likely show up automatically in your own timezone.

Yikes, I forgot to add some of these till after the fact. Sorry!! TRYING TO BE BETTER

Note added 9/28/20: I’ve started turning down almost all events that don’t come through my publisher, and am likely to turn down all (or nearly all) events after October because I really, really need a break. So if you want to come see me or ask questions, October’s the time.

CRITICAL POINT is almost here! And you can get the paperback of NULL SET

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Null Set cover

Woop woop I’m way late on updating my news feed again. The big stuff is that Null Set came out in paperback a few months ago — heck yeah! In this time of pandemic you can order it from your favorite online retailer or get your local indie to ship it to you. (I love local indies so much… I hope they all come through this okay.)

Next, coming this week — Tuesday, in fact! — the third book, Critical Point, is hitting internet shopping portals everywhere! (Doesn’t have the same ring as “stores”, does it?) Preorders are on! Critical Point is a brand new book, never before seen ever. That means if you read Zero Sum Game and Null Set, this is the next adventure in the series, but if you were reading the self-published versions of the books a thousand years ago (oh god what is time, March was about three millennia long), this is ALSO the next book in the series for you. For more details, see this page.

But the main point is — Critical Point! Brand new! Totally awesome! I’m excited!

In my head, I like to call this one either “the one with all the explosions” or “the one that is (finally) super gay.” Both of these descriptions make me very happy.

I’ll be updating this news feed over the weekend with a bunch of virtual events I’m doing next week to promote Critical Point. If you’ve wanted to come to an event or signing with me and have never been able to because geography, virtual events at least have the upside of not being pinned down to anywhere in the world… so that’s a plus side. I’ll also be sending out more details in my newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

I hope everyone is doing as okay as possible. Stay safe, stay well.