The Song of the Sea

October 15, 2019 Melanie Crowder

There are a million ways to write speculative fiction. It’s one of the reasons I love the genre so very much. Possibility is infinite. Potential is limitless.

Personally, rather than looking beyond our world for inspiration, I prefer to narrow my focus; to peer even more closely at our own world. For me, nature is magic. I’ve always been an outdoorsy person. I’ve always preferred groves of trees to clumps of buildings; the sound of moving water to the happy buzz of conversation in a coffee shop; the tapestry of color roving up the side of a mountain to anything you might see hanging on a wall.

So when it came time to create seven worlds and a magic system for each, I looked for inspiration in Earth’s wilderness.

Cover Reveal: A WAY BETWEEN WORLDS

September 2, 2019 Melanie Crowder

Releasing Oct. 1, here’s the first look at the cover for A WAY BETWEEN THE WORLDS, the dramatic conclusion to the Lighthouse Keepers duology.

Thank You, BOOKRIOT! - THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS FOR KIDS

August 12, 2019 Nicole Valentine

You might recognize a few steaMG names and titles on this list of 25 Universe-Expanding Science Fiction Books for Kids!

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July 10, 2019 Nicole Valentine

Please join me in welcoming new steaMG member Aimee Lucido.

When people find out that I’m a writer and a software engineer, I usually get one of two reactions. People either respond with something along the lines of “Coding and writing? They’re so different!” or “Girls in STEM is so trendy right now. You should write about it!” Both of these reactions used to drive me nuts.

The Magic and Science of Glass

March 25, 2019 Fran Wilde

A blue glass witch ball, resting on an arc of my new book, Riverland — A blue glass witch ball, resting on an arc of my new book, *Riverland*

There’s magic in my first middle grade novel, a portal fantasy called Riverland, too… lots of different kinds: real magic, made-up magic, and glass magic.

Wait, hold up, you say. Glass isn’t magic.

It kind of is. But it’s the science kind of magic.

I’m not talking about witch balls -- which are in the book -- the fishing floats that some people think can help trap angry spirits. I’m talking about real glass, which has transitional properties through the magic of thermodynamics.

I loved writing about this for Riverland. Some of my favorite moments in the book are passages where my main character Eleanor’s science project research on glass crosses over to work in the magic dream world.

New steaMG Author Book Out Today!

March 5, 2019 Nicole Valentine

Happy Book Birthday to Joshua S. Levy!

School hasn't just gotten out: it's gone clear across the galaxy. And now it's up to Jack and his friends to get everyone home.

PSS 118 is just your typical school except that it's a rickety old spaceship orbiting Jupiter. When the school is mysteriously attacked, thirteen-year-old Jack receives a cryptic message from his father (the school's recently-fired-for-tinkering-with-the-ship science teacher). Amidst the chaos, Jack discovers that his dad has built humanity's first light-speed engine and given Jack control of it. To save the ship, Jack catapults it hundreds of light-years away and right into the clutches of the first aliens humans have ever seen.

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