You can create believable science fiction and fantasy worlds.

Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre enveloping the ever-expanding genres of science fiction and fantasy, and best-selling science fiction and fantasy authors Crawford Kilian and Silvia Moreno-Garcia come together in this book to show writers how to craft believable worlds and plausible characters, and ultimately, how to craft good stories.

Their hands-on, practical, put-the-book-down-and-start-writing advice speaks to new and emerging authors of science fiction and fantasy. They offer more than pep talks and success stories; they explain genres and how to bend and blend them, and give concrete suggestions on how to overcome the inevitable problems writers face, such as self editing, writing plausible characters, and building a plot without writing formula fiction.

With a combined nearly 50 years of experience, Kilian and Moreno-Garcia save writers time, energy, and grief by showing them how to master the craft of storytelling and how to market their stories as successfully as possible. Their invaluable advice persuades readers to go beyond their, and others’, expectations of market and genre, pushing them to be better writers, and to add their own unique storytelling voices into the growing speculative fiction arena.

Crawford Kilian has been teaching and writing online since the 1980s. He developed Capilano University's first online writing course, as well as teaching how to write for multimedia and the web. Kilian has published over 20 books as well as hundreds of articles both in print and online. He is a contributing editor of The Tyee.ca, and runs numerous blogs. His Self-Counsel books include Writing for the Web, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the forthcoming Write Your Nonfiction Book Online.Crawford blogs about writing: * Writing for the Web * Ask the English Teacher * Books and Writers * Write a Novel * Write Your Nonfiction Book

Crawford Kilian's profile page

Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination. Silvia’s debut novel, Signal to Noise, about music and magic, won a Copper Cylinder Award and was nominated for the British Fantasy, Locus, Sunburst and Aurora awards. Her second novel, Certain Dark Things, focuses on narco vampires in Mexico City. It was selected as one of NPR’s best books of 2016 and is a finalist for the Locus and Sunburst awards.

Her third novel, The Beautiful Ones, will be out in the fall of 2017.

Silvia’s first collection, This Strange Way of Dying, was a finalist for the Sunburst Award. Her stories have also been collected in Love & Other Poisons.

She has edited several anthologies, including She Walks in Shadows (World Fantasy Award winner, published in the USA as Cthulhu’s Daughters), Sword & Mythos, Fungi, Dead North and Fractured. Silvia is the publisher of Innsmouth Free Press. She also co-edits The Jewish Mexican Literary Review with Lavie Tidhar and the horror magazine The Dark with Sean Wallace.

She has an MA in Science and Technology Studies from the University of British Columbia. Her thesis can be read online and is titled “Magna Mater: Women and Eugenic Thought in the Work of H.P. Lovecraft.”

Silvia Moreno-Garcia's profile page

Synopsis: "A Writer's Guide to Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Crawford Kilian and Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a instructive 'how to' manual that is comprised of hands-on, practical, put-the-book-down-and-start-writing advice that speaks to new and emerging authors of science fiction and fantasy. Crawford and Silvia are bestselling SciFi writers who have compiled this instructional guide offer far more than pep talks and success stories; they explain genres and how to bend and blend them, giving concrete suggestions for overcoming inevitable writing problems across genres: self-editing, creating plausible characters, and building a plot without writing formula fiction. With a combined fifty years of experience, Kilian and Moreno-Garcia will save aspiring writers time, energy, and grief by showing them how to master the craft of storytelling and how to market their stories as successfully as possible. Their invaluable advice persuades readers to go beyond expectations of market and genre, pushing them to be better writers, and to add their own unique voices into the growing speculative fiction arena. For aspiring writers of the SciFi & Fantasy genre, this book will light the way to creating your own books. Critique: Impressively informative, expertly organized, accessibly presented, and especially recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Writing/Publishing collections, "A Writer's Guide to Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy" will prove to be invaluable and practical addition to the personal reading lists of anyone with an interest in writing (and having published!) their books and stories in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Editorial Note: Crawford Kilian has been teaching and writing online since the 1980s. He has published more than twenty books, including Writing for the Web, Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Sell Your Nonfiction Book. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of Signal to Noise, Certain Dark Things, The Beautiful Ones, and the science fiction novella Prime Meridian.

- James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review