Trying this again: Female Writers that You are a FAN of...

[shadowkat]

I did that whole Female Writer post wrong last night. So trying again. What prompted this is the realization that most people online go on and on and on about their favorite "male" writers. It's Whedon this, or Moffat that, or David Milch, or Aaron Sorkin or RT Davis or Neil Gaiman or Gene Roddenberry, JJ Abhrams, and Ron Moore...but where are the ladies? Surely there are female writers in the film, television, and fan world that you adore?

So trying this again.

If you should happen upon this post - please come up with at least one, more if possible, female writers that you are "Fannish" about. That you adore! They can be novelist, they can be television writers, they can be playwrites or comic book writers. I'm betting most will be novelists. But try not to copy other people's. Yeah, I know everyone loves JK Rowling, but any one else?

Let's Celebrate the Female Writers that we are fans of.

Here's mine - these are writers that I'm a fan of and follow their books or stories religiously.
And railed at, just like I've railed at the male equivalent.

1. Jane Espenson. She's written for just about every science fiction/fantasy tv show on. Started with Star Trek - DS9, Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, BattleStar Galatica, was the show-runner for Caprica and Tru Calling at different points, wrote for Torchwood (although I haven't seen it), and the only woman writer for Game of Thrones last year, has written comic books, and is currently writing the best episodes of ABC's new hit series Once Upon a Time. She can write comedy or drama. And she's down-to-earth. With a blog. I've been known to follow Jane E about, and she is by far my favorite writer of the Whedon series as a person. OR the only one I'd want to sit down and have tea with.

2. Kim Harrison of the Rachel Morgan Bounty Hunter series - yes, a novelist, and while not brilliant always, I adore her characters. And her story which is truly unique in the urban fantasy universe. One of the few that blends science with gothic horror fantasy. And a female noire tale to boot. Start with Dead Witch Walking and go from there. Also in the world-building department?
Few are her equals.

3. JK Rowlings...Harry Potter Books - I doing her, so no one else will. I'm evil that way. But I also adore Rowling's. She created a world. The detail of it is quite extraordinary. It's a child's fantasy world - or a world a child would dream up not an adult, with fantastical candies and jokes.
It also addresses adult and child issues such as classism, bullying, racism, and discrimination in a manner that is accessible to everyone. Rowlings doesn't preach in her novels or tells, she shows you her world and lets you play inside it.

4. Jane Austen - was always a fan of Austen. But yet another novelist. Dang-it. What I loved most about Austen was the banter. She was hilarious. Her books are satirical takes on her time and the manners and etiquette of that time period. They last, because the issues she had with class continue today, along with gender.

5. Anne McCaffrey - another novelist...all of mine are novelists, this is a problem. I've read all of her books, I think or most of them. My favorites were the dragon-riders of Pern series, because hello, telepathic dragons. (Now not so much a fan, so probably shouldn't be listed here...I haven't read her in over 20 years. Sort of how I feel about her male counterpart CS Lewis, who I loved and abandoned in much the same manner).

I can't think of any film writers that I've followed faithfully, maybe Kathryn Bigelow, but she's a director not a writer. Diane English - I loved Murphy Brown but little else. I don't know.
Can you think of female film and television writers that you adored. And watched whatever they did with the same fannish glee that you might fellow male counterparts such as Joss Whedon or Stephen Moffat? Who are your goddesses of the written word?

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Marion Zimmer Bradley used to be a huuuuuuuuuge influence on my teenage years. "The Mists of Avalon" when I was 13 was one of those lightning stroke kind of books experiences, and then I read everything she'd written (that was available in German - remember, teenager, not yet prone to read fluently in another language), which were the Darkover novels and "The Catch Trap", mainly, and some other sci fi novels. This went on through my teenage years (and led to a fan letter when I was 17, which I got a nice reply to) and subscribing to a newsletter, this being before the internet. In my twenties I stopped being a fan, not least because the late ghost written Darkover novels were terrible, and by the time I hit 30 I didn't buy books anymore that had her name on them. But she was definitely the first female writer I was absolutely fannish about no matter what she wrote (for that decade), and who awoke me to feminism; also the first to present gay and bisexual characters in a positive light in any books I had read until that point. So while it's been literally decades, I'll always be grateful.

Current day female writers I'm following independent of subject: Sharon Penman (my favourite historical novelist), Barbara Hambly (I love both her fantasy and her historical novels), Gillian Bradshaw (ditto).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I remember loving Sharra's Exile as a child. Your love of Marion then loss of interest reminds me vaguely of my love for Anne McCaffrey...then loss of interest, although Marion was more feminist.

I need to try Sharon Penman - a good historical novelist is not easy to find.
And I haven't tried Barbara Hambly but heard good things. Thank you for these!