We’re back with another roundtable-style interview for Women in SFF – this week we’re chatting with Angry Robot debut authors!

Let’s dive straight in and meet them – you can find biographies about each other and links to their books at the end

Welcome to the Fantasy Hive and our Women in SFF feature! 

We’re thrilled you could join us for an interview about your debut novels.

To begin with, can you briefly describe your story in three sentences or less? 

Salinee Goldenberg (SG) – The Last Phi Hunter 

Thai-inspired grim-darkish fantasy where a ghost hunter on a mission gets sidequested by a pregnant runaway in need of escort through the forest. What seemed like a sidequest suddenly develops into a full blown adventure, where the stakes continue to escalate, eventually including the fate of the kingdom itself.  

Maud Woolf (WF) – Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock

Set in a world of the near future, the celebrity elite have access to a technology that allows them to make perfect copies of themselves, known as Portraits. These Portraits exist to fulfil all the various duties that come as the price of fame. Our protagonist is the thirteenth clone of washed up movie star Lulabelle Rock and she is tasked with a simple mission: track down and kill her predecessors.

Mariana Costa (MC) – Shoestring Theory

A silly goofy story about the kingdom of Farsala’s most depressed royal wizard going back in time to murder his husband, the king, in order to stop his home from falling into ruin. There’s a cat in it, but please don’t worry too much about the cat. 

Alice McIlroy (AM) – The Glass Woman (Datura Books)

In The Glass Woman, the protagonist Iris, a female neuroscientist, trials a pioneering AI brain implant and must fight to reconstruct her identity, exploring the nature of humanity amid technological advancement and uncertainty. It is a quest for Iris to discover who she is before it is too late and as a cautionary tale, it posits AI as a manifestation of human desire for transcending our own limitations, and the peril that invokes. The novel asks: what will be lost if we allow technological progress at all costs?

Can you tell us a bit about your main character? What kind of personality do they possess?

SG: Ex is a cinnamon roll, a himbo, a badass with a heart of gold. He’s extremely proud of his monster-hunting trade, but a bit insecure about it at the same time, knowing full well it doesn’t let him neatly fit into the bulk of society. He can be snarky and a bit of brat, though, as well as overconfident, which often gets him into trouble.

MW: The thirteenth clone of Lulabelle Rock was literally born yesterday. While she’s inherited a blonde bombshell body, a head full of vague memories and a complicated legacy, she’s still trying to get to grips with what ice-cream flavour she likes best. 

MC: Cyril Laverre is literally just a little guy! He’s literally just a guy and everything is happening to him so much! Look at him! He’s got anxiety!

AM: Iris is an unreliable narrator. She awakes in a clinic with medically induced amnesia and the reader goes on the journey with her as she recovers her memory. She then discovers she is trialling an AI brain implant, programmed to be an internal therapist and heal trauma. Iris doesn’t know what to trust of the memories the implant feeds to her, so there’s layers of unreliability.

How well do you think you’d fare in your fictional world?

SG: In general, I’m a pretty adaptable person so I’d like to think that I’d do alright. I definitely wouldn’t be a phi hunter, it’s way too demanding and a lot of time spent in nature, and I’m a city person. I’d probably live in the Capital or Jinburi and eke out a mergre living as an artist, while secretly dabbling in folk magic.

MW: In the glittering world of Bubble City I would realistically not have enough money to have any Portraits. I think my existence wouldn’t really be that different. Working a nine to five job and writing in the margins. The main difference would be having to read the totally bonkers discourse I imagine would spring up online around the existence of Portraits. 

MC: Is this before or after the localised apocalypse? I’m going to go with before, as that proves to be a more fun answer. Every time I picture myself in a fantasy society I imagine I’d be a story peddler of some kind. Like, a bard-stationary. I’d have one very reliable tavern I go to every night to tell stories about people kissing.

AM: It’s a very paranoid and paranoia inducing world! I think I’d be terrified! It’s taking technology as it is today and transposing it into a very extreme situation, so in that sense it’s not so far removed from our world and is an analogy for how pervasive technology is in our lives already. 

Did you create mood boards to help set the atmosphere of your story? If so, what did your mood board consist of? 

SG: The Pinterest board for the Last Phi Hunter has a lot of great artwork on it, character references and atmosphere and what have you, but also historical  a lot of references for the historical periods of Thailand that I took inspiration from. I also made a playlist of songs that pertained to certain vibes or specific set pieces.

MW: Not mood boards but key pieces of art and music tend to act as anchor points for my writing. I listened to the Marina and the Diamonds album ‘The Family Jewels’ on repeat while I was working and I spent a lot of time reading articles about Pop Art. Think Andy Warhol’s ‘Marilyn Diptych’. 

MC: I do have a pinterest board, but more importantly, I have a Spotify playlist! Please listen to it, it’s got all the sad gay hits (Mitski, Hozier, etc).

I’m also an illustrator for a day job, so you’ll find character artwork of my guys floating around my instagram!

AM: Yes, I think quite visually when I write so I did have a mood board of images for the different locations in the novel – a clinic, Iris’ house, and for places which didn’t make it into the final novel (there was originally a scene in the Hebrides). 

The path to publication can be such a varying one for everyone – how was yours?

SG: It didn’t make it easy on myself – I quit my lucrative 9-5 and started freelancing in order to have more time to write. As a single parent, it wasn’t the wisest move, but quite necessary for my sanity. It took about 6-7 novels and 6 years before I was able to get this one noticed, and eventually, plucked from the slush pile during Angry Robot’s Open the Doors submission period.

MW: An odd one! When I finished my novel I barely edited it before sending it out to every literary agent I could think of. Heard mostly nothing with a few polite ‘thank you but no’ responses and I put it aside. Then I impulsively signed up to a Masters in Creative Writing in Glasgow (huge shout out here). Around the end of the year there was a competition for first drafts held by the North Lit Agency. The first prize was representation and I eagerly signed up….and didn’t win. I did however get a runners up prize and I was told that one of the agents who had read over the drafts had been championing my novel in the selection process. That’s how I met my current agent and it’s been a very happy marriage ever since. 

MC: Unexpected! I’ve been trying to become an author since I was twelve, but I gave up very quickly once I realised how difficult it was to describe environments. 

I ended up being drawn back into the world of storytelling through comics (because you can just draw the environments! Genius!) and over the pandemic I rekindled my love affair with the written word! Reading all these wonderful novels inspired me to, at the very least, try and complete one manuscript before I fully threw in the towel. I started drafting Shoestring while waiting for a flight at the LAX airport while running on jetlag fumes and I forced myself to keep going. 

You’ll be able to judge for yourselves whether or not that gamble paid off!

AM: It was a fairly long journey in that I started writing the book in 2017 and it was published in 2024. I think because it’s my first novel, and it begins with a character who has no sense of her own identity, it was a challenging first novel to write. There was also the impact that the pace of technological change had on the story and the role of AI within the novel developed as AI became more sophisticated in our own world. 

Just for fun, how would you pitch your book as a 1-star review?

SG: (This may or may not contain some sentiments I have actually seen)

Oh wow another BIPOC author with a non-western inspired fantasy. Where is Thailand even? Never heard of it. It wasn’t remotely appropriate for children! Body horror and sexual innuendo, and foul language. Would not recommend to anyone who prefers wholesome, normal European centric books.

MW: One star review! Just watch The Island (2005)  instead! At least you’ll see Scarlett Johannsen. 

MC: “DNF 5% – NOOOO!!!! NOT THE CAT!!!!! COSTA, WHEN I CATCH YOU, COSTA!!!!”

Editor: Wait wait wait you do something to the cat?! Am I going to be sending Caroline a strongly-worded email??

AM: Left me feeling cold and looking over my shoulder: too dark, creepy and chilling!

Without giving away too many spoilers, tell us about a scene you most enjoyed writing? 

SG: Ah, so many scenes were a blast to write. But one of my favorites is late in the story, when Ex has to enter a realm rarely traveled by mortals. There’s a dream-like, fairytale essence to it, and I was able to break a lot of “rules” of the world that I had set up.

MW: My favourite scene in the novel is where my assassin shows up at a huge party high in the rooftops of the city. She meets a Portrait whose job is, essentially, to party. She’s been going from glittering event to glittering event for years, living off canapes and catching brief moments of sleep hidden under the furs in coat rooms. This was just so much fun to describe and live in for a bit, especially because I wrote it during covid where I was essentially sitting with my laptop alone in my room every night. 

MC: I might actually need to go ask my wife about this, because she’s a lot better at earnestly sweeping for my work than I am (Mari, go one interview without mentioning your wife: challenge level impossible). 

But I think the scene where Cyril and Eufrates encounter each other for the first time in the past is very solid, though! It’s what made me feel confident enough to keep going. I love to write lovers-to-enemies tension. 

AM: I enjoyed writing the latter scenes between Iris and husband Marcus because there is so much tension in their relationship and so much is unknown to Iris that by three-quarters of the way through the novel it’s like peeling back the surface layers to reveal the truth at their core, as the foundations of their relationship are exposed. 

Who are the most significant women in SFF who have shaped and influenced your work? 

SG: Margaret Atwood, NK Jeminsin, Ursula LeGuin, Anne McCaffrey, Octavia Butler

MW: Ursula K LeGuin! I know everyone will say this but I adore her and grew up reading her Hainish novels; she’s such an idol for me. Lauren Beukes is another huge one for me. The highlight of my writing life was getting to be on a panel with her this year for the Cymera Festival. All I could think about was that I used to write essays about her work in my literature course. 

MC: Diana Wynne Jones! I wouldn’t be here without her. More recently, I’ve read some incredible books by Tamsyn Muir and R. F. Kuang. 

AM: Margaret Atwood and Ursula Le Guin are huge sources of inspiration for me. I think The Glass Woman is more aligned with Margaret Atwood’s dystopian fiction, and possibly somewhere between Margaret Atwood and Mary Shelley. Shelley’s Frankenstein is the book I couldn’t have written The Glass Woman without – in terms of its exploration of our responsibility for our creations, scientists playing God and the power dynamic between Frankenstein and the monster. In terms of current SFF, I love Temi Oh’s writing and how Oh combines character driven science fiction with exploring how technology which purports to connect people, in fact compounds isolation and historic inequality. 

If you could visit any fictional coffee shop or restaurant or tavern (etc!), where would you visit and why?

SG: It would be dope to go to the Twice Lucky from Fonda Lee’s Jade City. The food sounds delicious, though I probably would just get take out since there’s always some crazy shit going down there. Also Quarks on Deep Space 9 because Space Is The Place and it would be fun to drink and gamble with aliens. I’d probably get into a fight with Quark though.

MW: I would love to visit Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the world from the novel of the same name by Douglas Adams. Who wouldn’t want to eat waffles and watch the world explode? 

MC: Oh, this is so fun! I feel like this is cheating, but I’m a very food-oriented person so my first thought was that I’d go to the night market from Spirited Away and then immediately get transmogrified into a pig (a small price to pay). 

AM: If I could choose any fictional shop, I would wander into Hobart and Blackwell’s dusty antique shop in The Goldfinch which Donna Tartt describes so evocatively!

If you were to have your story adapted, what medium would you choose—anime, Netflix series or feature length film? Who would you cast for your main character? 

SG: I definitely think The Last Phi Hunter would make an amazing anime or animated feature. There’s so much freedom to go ham with the spirits, action scenes and magical essence of the world. Of course, I wouldn’t turn down the opportunity for a live action either, but would insist that the cast be primarily Asian.

MW: This is a little bit of a cheat answer but I would love a graphic novel adaption. I was working in a comic book shop when I wrote it and so much of my dialogue and imagery was inspired by reading graphic novels all day there. 

Editor: We’ll allow it!

MC: I NEED any live action adaptation of any of my work to be AWFUL. I need the budget to be ten pence and a loose stick of gum and I need the production value to be underground. I need to host a viewing party every year and I need to own every bad piece of tie-in merch. I need to launch the career of an indie actor who will go on to be an A-list celebrity.

(Looking over my shoulder at the other answers) OH! Um. Yeah! It would be so cool to be able to have an art direction credit in an animated adaptation of Shoestring!

AM: Given the number of twists, I think it could make for a Netflix series, although when I wrote it I was thinking really cinematically – I think the slow-build suspense would be well-suited to film. 

What will you be doing to celebrate your release? 

SG: For my release party, I had a short in-convo with my writing group buddy at a local bookstore, followed by a reception and a signing. My mom generously made some delicious wontons and spring rolls that everyone enjoyed. After that, we headed to my friend’s cocktail bar for an afterparty, where there were special themed drinks inspired by the novel, which were…too good. 

MW: This might be a little too honest but I celebrated by calling my mum. I felt so shell shocked when I heard that it was going to be released and calling her and getting to hear her scream down the line at me made it real. My reception was a blur and felt strangely wedding-like; it seemed like everyone I had ever known showed up and they were all so excited for me it was hard to keep from crying constantly. 

MC: I don’t know yet! I might get a cake, or go out to a nice restaurant. Most likely, I’ll be hiding in my room shaking with nerves. 

Finally, how do you hope your readers will feel after finishing your novel?

SG: Satisfied, inspired, curious, and eager to learn more about some of the folklore and culture I took inspiration from. 

MW: The ideal reaction would be for them to put down the book, blink at the cover for a while and go ‘huh’. And then a month later they would find themselves thinking about it again. But that’s the ideal; I really just want them to be entertained above everything else.

MC: FANFICTION OR BUST!!! 

AM: My aim was for it to be thought-provoking. It confronts some uncomfortable questions. All of the characters are morally conflicted in some way, and so I wanted the reader to question who they sympathise with and how far. It does end with some hope and some form of redemption, and I wanted that, but I also want, whether readers feel sympathy for the characters or not, for it to spark some discussion about the questions raised – that would be success for me.

Thank you so much for joining us for Women in SFF!

Salinee Goldenberg – The Last Phi Hunter – Available now

Salinee Goldenberg is a speculative fiction writer and multimedia artist who lives in Washington DC, and is drawn to outsider perspectives. A biracial, bisexual, diaspora writer, Sal often explores themes of identity, obsession and alienation in her work. A gaming industry veteran, Sal has created narrative trailers for titles such as Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dishonored, and Minecraft. When not writing, she likes to paint, listen to records, and play in punk bands.

Salinee Goldenberg | Add to Goodreads | Available now

Maud Woolf – Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock – Available now

Maud Woolf is a Scottish speculative writer with a particular focus on horror and science fiction. Her work has appeared in a variety of online magazines, including Metaphorosis Magazine where her short story ‘The Stranding’ was selected to appear in the Best of Metaphorosis 2020. Over the course of her life she’s worked a number of jobs including waitressing, comic book selling, sign holding and as a tour guide at a German dollhouse museum. When not exploring Glasgow’s labyrinthine system of abandoned tunnels she spends most of her free time watching old Hollywood films and attempting to knit.

Maud Woolf | Add to Goodreads | Available now

Mariana Costa – Shoestring Theory – 8th October 2024

Mariana Costa is a Brazilian-born author and illustrator now based in Portugal. A professional illustrator, she has sold several graphic novels in the US.

Mariana Costa | Add to Goodreads | Pre-order

Alice McIlroy – The Glass Woman (Datura Books) – Available now

Alice McIlroy was born in London. She graduated in English and has a post-graduate in Law. She completed Faber Academy’s novel-writing programme and has taught English in state schools in London and Milan. Her writing has been longlisted for the Stylist Prize for Feminist Fiction and Grindstone International Novel Prize. The Glass Woman is her debut novel.

Alice McIlroy | Add to Goodreads | Available now