the way the kids shake you'd think we're blowing up.

I was just privileged to read an ARC of the forthcoming small press anthology, The Lone Star Stories Reader, available for pre-order here.

It really brought something home to me that I've been thinking about for a couple of years. Which is that anybody who thinks we don't have strong new voices in genre must not be doing three things. Those three things are: reading the online magazine, paying attention to the small press, and watching what the women are up to. Because man, that is one heck of a collection. And with the exception of two or three established writers, it's all new kids and up-and-comers.

Check this out:

Introduction by Sherwood Smith
"Wolf Night" by Martha Wells
"Seasonal Work" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
"'Janet, Meet Bob'" by Gavin J. Grant
"The Great Conviction of Tia Inez" by M. Thomas
"Angels of a Desert Heaven" by Marguerite Reed
"The Disemboweler" by Ekaterina Sedia
"A Night in Electric Squidland" by Sarah Monette
"Thread: A Triptych" by Catherynne M. Valente
"The Frozen One" by Tim Pratt
"Dragon Hunt" by Sarah Prineas
"Manuscript Found Written in the Paw Prints of a Stoat" by Samantha Henderson
"Giant" by Stephanie Burgis
"When the Rain Comes" by Josh Rountree
"The Hangman Isn't Hanging" by Jay Lake
"The Oracle Opens One Eye" by Patricia Russo

The table of contents reads like a Hugo ballot from 2025.

If you don't know who these 11 women and 4 men are, here's your chance to find out. Get in on the ground floor. Tell people you knew about them way back when.