Fonda’s Guest Posts:

• Fonda Lee on Star Trek: TNG, the Green Bone Saga, and the Transformative Power of Fantasy Diaspora Stories (2019): “One of the things that has drawn me to science fiction over the years is the thematic exploration of diaspora. What happens when humankind takes to the stars and spreads far beyond its original homeland?”
• The Case for YA Science Fiction (2018): “But for a while, I had a frustrating front row view into the disparity between the two sides of the genre coin. While fantasy is more popular and more lucrative in the adult speculative fiction field as well, the imbalance seems to be worse in YA.”
• East Meets West: A Film-going Novelist Celebrates the Blending of Cultural Influences (2017): “It’s vital to recognize that there is a sometimes subtle but important difference between borrowing another culture’s traditions or customs for garish exploitation, and the potentially wonderful creative fruits of genuine cross-cultural inspiration.”
• Epic Fantasy: Let’s Get with the (Non-Medieval) Times (2017): “If you’re an epic fantasy fan looking for historical variety, there are plenty of novels to choose from, if you go looking for them. In fact, you could easily embark on a ‘medieval-free’ book diet and discover enough to keep you happily fed for years.”
• There’s More to Worldbuilding Than Making Magic (2017): “The vital ingredient in a fictional world is culture.”
• Women in SF&F Month: Fonda Lee (2016): “Let me begin by saying that I hold a special fury in my heart for the unrelenting gender assigning of books, media, and toys.”
• Blow-by-Blow: Writing Action and Fight Scenes—5 Tips (2015): “No matter at what point they occur in a story, fight scenes are like blocks of C-4 plastic explosive. They pack a hell of a lot of energy. They build and release tension in a powerful burst. Used properly, they rivet attention and propel your story forward. Overused, they are noisy and deadening.”

Fonda’s Interviews:

• Interview with Fonda Lee (2020): “Anden going to Espenia and navigating a culture that’s foreign to him was a really compelling storyline for me. As an Asian-American, I rarely see diaspora culture reflected in fantasy fiction. Other cultures, even fictional ones, are so often depicted as a monolith.”
• Fantasy and Science Fiction Award-Winning Author Fonda Lee On Research, Letting Ideas Age, and Getting Clear On WHY You Write (2020): “I don’t believe in writer’s block as a syndrome or as an excuse; it’s usually a signal that something is not working, either in my story, or with my own motivation or creative state of mind. I usually deal with it by backtracking and re-evaluating my manuscript for where it seems to have stalled.”
• Fonda Lee: When the Alien Invaders Win (2018): “My dad takes credit for introducing me to SF. He says when I was an infant he’d hold me on his lap in this battered yellow rocking chair, and bathe me in the glow of Star Trek original series reruns, so I must’ve been osmosing science fiction stories as a baby.”
• Interview: Fonda Lee (2018): “I’m very interested in creating worlds that feel as though they’ve been around for a long time and are now on the cusp of another chapter in history.”
• Portland author Fonda Lee builds worlds that give readers ‘things to think about’ (2018): “All alien stories are fundamentally human stories.”
• Author Interview: Fonda Lee (2017): “To me, there are two equally wrong-headed extremes when it comes to portraying women in a testosterone-dominated culture, fictional or not. One is to ignore or marginalize them completely. The other is to pretend that there is no systemic prejudice and to make them every bit as prevalent and accepted as the men. Both are unrealistic.”
• Michelle Rial and Fonda Lee: “I find it frustrating that people feel compelled to draw judgmental distinctions between ‘high art’ and ‘commercial art.’ Of course, there are differing objectives and audiences for different types of art, but I think that as creatives, we’re all just trying to express our own truth.”

Fonda’s Short Fiction:

• “I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married” (2019): “I filled out some information about myself, put in my preferences for gender and age, and in seconds I had an AI-generated virtual girlfriend named ‘Ivy.’ ”
• “Welcome to the Legion of Six” (2019): “Call it idealism if you will, but when I joined the Legion of Six at the height of the Cold War, we really believed we had a calling. A solemn responsibility to use our powers to save the world from destruction. You know what? I think it’s just not the same for young superhumans these days.”
• “Universal Print”: “Art Strung stared at the grounded vessel, then turned in a slow, disbelieving circle. The afternoon Thedesian sun beat down on the scrubby, arid landscape: dusty, rolling purple hills dotted with copses of bushy blackish-green trees, and in the distance, piled rock formations that made Art think of enormous heaps of animal dung. I’m screwed, Strung decided. I am so going to be fired. ”