Here are our Queer Sacramento Authors’ Collective authors and their books.
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Emily Brandish
Emily Brandish is a queer author of MM Fantasy books with twisty plots, complex characters, and extra-spicy spice. She lives in Sacramento, CA and has been saying, "I'm going to be a novelist when I grow up!" since she was old enough to write a sentence.
Lisa Bunker
Lisa Bunker(vo/ven/veir) has written stories all veir life. Veir books include Felix Yz (Viking, 2017), Zenobia July (Viking, 2019), and Almond, Quartz, and Finch (New Wind, 2023). Before setting up shop as a full-time author vo had a 30-year career in non-commercial broadcasting. Vo has made homes in New Mexico, the LA area, Seattle, the Florida panhandle, Maine, and New Hampshire. Vo now lives in Sacramento, CA with veir spouse Dawn, an author in her own right. Between them they have three grown children. From 2018 to 2022 Lisa represented the town of Exeter in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Veir other active interests include chess, birding, choral singing, and musical composition.
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Minerva Cerridwen
Minerva Cerridwen is a genderqueer aromantic asexual writer and pharmacist from Belgium. She enjoys baking, drawing and handlettering. Since 2013 she has been writing for Paranatellonta, a project combining photography and flash fiction. Her first published work was the queer fairy tale ‘Match Sticks’ in the Unburied Fables anthology (2016). Her short stories have also appeared in Atthis Arts anthologies Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove (2019) and Community of Magic Pens (2020). For updates on her newest projects, visit her website or follow her on Twitter. minervacerridwen.wordpress.com twitter.com/minerva_cerr
J. Scott Coatsworth
Scott lives with his husband Mark in a little yellow bungalow with two pink flamingoes in Sacramento. He inhabits the space between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine, he devoured her library. But as he grew up, he wondered where the people like him were. He decided it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Waldenbooks. If there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends. His friends say Scott’s brain works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. He seeks to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something unexpected. A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that bring queer people together to promote and celebrate fiction reflecting their own reality. Scott is is the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
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Liz Faraim
Liz Faraim is a recovering workaholic who has mastered multi-tasking, including balancing a day job, solo parenting, writing, and finding some semblance of a social life. In past lives she has been a soldier, a bartender, a shoe salesperson, an assistant museum curator, and even a driving instructor. Liz writes contemporary fiction that highlights queer characters and often includes complex polyamorous relationships. Her writing has a hefty dose of soul searching and emotional turmoil while also taking the reader on fun adventures. She loves spending time in nature and does her best to share nature with her readers.
Kim Fielding
Kim Fielding is pleased every time someone calls her eclectic. Her books span a variety of genres, but all include authentic voices and unconventional heroes. Winner of the 2021 BookLife Prize for Fiction, she is also a Rainbow Award and SARA Emma Merritt winner, a LAMBDA finalist, and a three-time Foreword INDIE finalist. She has migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States and currently lives in California, where she long ago ran out of bookshelf space. A university professor who dreams of being able to travel and write full-time, she also dreams of having two daughters who think she's cool and a husband who isn’t obsessed with football. Some dreams are more easily obtained than others.
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Pat Henshaw
Pat Henshaw, born and raised in Nebraska, has lived on the U S’s three coasts, in Texas, Virginia, and now California. Before she retired, she held a number of jobs, including theatrical costumer, newspaper features reporter and movie reviewer, librarian, junior college English instructor, and publicist. She also loves to travel and has visited Canada, Mexico, Europe, Egypt, and Central America as well as almost all fifty US states. Now retired, she enjoys reading and writing as well as visiting her older daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren on the East Coast and playing havoc with her younger daughter’s life in Washington state. She thanks you for reading her books and wants you to remember that every day is a good day for romance.
Brenda Gaines Hunter
Brenda Gaines Hunter writes mostly dramatic poetry and creative nonfiction.
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Ava Kelly
Ava Kelly is a nonbinary speculative writer and engineer. Secretly a pile of cats in a trenchcoat, Ava’s goal is to bring into the world more tales of friendship and compassion, dedicated to trope subversion, stories that give the void a voice. Romanian living in Norway, Ava is an avid explorer of culture and its reflection upon life and creativity, both in art and in tech design. Among their works are the award-winning novel Havesskadi, and the short story “A Sudden Displacement of Matter” part of the Lambda-nominated anthology Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers. Find them at AvaKellyFiction.com or @ThunderEternal on Twitter.
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M.D. Neu
M.D. Neu is an international award-winning inclusive queer Fiction Writer with a love for writing and travel. Living in the heart of Silicon Valley (San Jose, California) and growing up around technology, he’s always been fascinated with what could be. Specifically drawn to Science Fiction and Paranormal television and novels, M.D. Neu was inspired by the great Gene Roddenberry, George Lucas, Stephen King, Alice Walker, Alfred Hitchcock, Harvey Fierstein, Anne Rice, and Kim Stanley Robinson. An odd combination, but one that has influenced his writing. Growing up in an accepting family as a gay man he always wondered why there were never stories reflecting who he was. Constantly surrounded by characters that only reflected heterosexual society, M.D. Neu decided he wanted to change that. So, he took to writing, wanting to tell good stories that reflected our diverse world. When M.D. Neu isn’t writing, he works for a non-profit and travels with his biggest supporter and his harshest critic, Eric his husband of twenty plus years.
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D.L. O'Neil
D.L. O’Neil spent a lifetime thinking creatively, but her foray into writing follows more than thirty years using the analytic side of her brain. She includes a bit of herself in each book, weaving an event or experience from her non-literary life. When not writing she can be found near a golf course, on a hiking trail, or in her wood shop.
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BJ Sikes
BJ Sikes is a 5'6" ape descendant who is inordinately fond of a good strong cup of tea, Doc Marten boots, and fancy dress. She lives with one large cat, two sweet teenagers, and one editor-author, plus an array of chickens. She write fantastical histories for modern feminists.
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T. C. Luther
T.C. Luther was born on the West Coast but relocated to a small farm in a rural community in the Midwest at an early age. Because there was minimal social contact on the farm, T.C. spent much time alone and developed the skill to conjure stories and artwork in his mind that, once put on paper or canvas, could be used for entertainment by many. As an adult, T.C. was drawn to academics, completed college with degrees in the creative arts, and focused his early career on art, architecture, and history. This desire for learning took T.C. from the Midwest to the South and New York City. After a stint in the Big Apple, T.C. returned to his origins on the West Coast, where he has found contentment and strives to live a life enriched with the beauty and creativity that his active mind creates for him and those around him.
Sen Taylor
Sen has been imagining and writing stories for as long as they can remember. As they are nonbinary, they know the struggle of body dysphoria and gender identity, and this lifelong journey is directly reflected in their writing. In addition to this, their extensive study and acquired bachelor's degree in History from the University of Davis, California along with their career as an interpreter have been especially influential. Sen lives in Sacramento, California with their husband Eli and their Shiba Inu Navi.
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Atish Victor
An Aspiring Author born and raised in Sacramento, California to a Filipino family, Atish grew up with music, art, and a keen interest in history. He is currently a university student studying for a degree in anthropology, specifically archaeology, and is working on three different fantasy worlds. His main project, Łekash, has been in the works since 2021, and has two main novel projects in the works.
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Clara Ward
Clara Ward lives on the border between reality and speculative fiction. When not using words to teach or tell stories, Clara uses wood, fiber, and glass to make practical or completely impractical objects. Their short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Decoded Pride, The Arcanist, and as a postcard from Thinking Ink Press. Clara’s upcoming novel will be available from Atthis Arts in March of 2024. Be the Sea, a near-future story of travel and found family, delves into our oceans, our selves, and how all futures intertwine.
Richard E. Williams
I'm a novelist specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and short horror fiction. I write about protagonists that are members of the LGBTQI+ community and focus on depicting these characters in a positive or affirming representation. As a gay man and a clinical psychologist in the federal prison system for over twenty-seven years, I use my personal and clinical experiences to enrich my characters, showing the human psyche's struggles, triumphs, and determination to thrive. I'm currently working on my first novel which will be available June 29, 2024. My stories engaged readers and offers them a unique escape to wherever they'd like. These stories involve captivating characters, gripping plotlines, engaging settings, and topics that will make readers think. Using my creative style and writing skill, I hope to delight readers of all ages! I'm an avid sports fan (WVU Mountaineers, Atlanta Braves, Sacramento Kings) and a member of California's longest-running LGBTQI+ bowling league. I live outside Sacramento, CA, with my husband, Doug, and two dogs, Trouble and Xena
E.S. Wynn
I am the author of over seventy books in print, as well as the chief editor of Thunderune Publishing. In my spare time, I spin stories, build board games, stitch together battle jackets, run a pair of magazines, make videos about Norse Shamanism on Youtube and encourage people to create new art constantly. I am openly transgender and do what I can to pursue acceptance and love for and within the trans community. During the last decade, I have worked with hundreds of authors and edited thousands of manuscripts for nearly a dozen different magazines. My stories and articles have been published in dozens of journals, e-zines and anthologies. I have taught classes in literature, marketing, math, spirituality, energetic healing and guided meditation. I have also worked as a voice-over artist for several different horror and sci-fi podcasts, albums and ebooks.