Leena Likitalo is one of the fantastic authors I was lucky enough to get to know at the Clarion Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers' Workshop, which we both attended in the summer of 2014. Though many of our cohort have published a good deal of short fiction since that summer (some of it very well received), and a few have landed small press book deals, Leena is the first of our group to be published with a "Big Five" publisher like Tor. THE FIVE DAUGHTERS OF THE MOON by Leena Likitalo is out today, July 25, 2017, and the sequel, THE SISTERS OF THE CRESCENT EMPRESS will be available in November 2017.

I'm thrilled that more people will finally have the chance to experience the wondrous worlds that flow from Leena Likitalo's fingertips.

Sarena Ulibarri: In a nutshell, what was the path from manuscript to publication for THE FIVE DAUGHTERS OF THE MOON?

Leena Likitalo: The Five Daughters of the Moon came to me, demanding to be told right at that moment, and perhaps that's why everything happened so very fast.

The story came to me first in November 2014. I had just started in a new job and resolved not to work on any novels for the time being. This story didn't care about that! It was so insistent that I had no other option but to scribble it down as a short story.

The good thing about insistent stories is that they pretty much write themselves. The next summer, when I had some time off from work, I jotted down a synopsis for the duology — by then I'd realized the story was too big and complex for one book. It took me around three months to complete the first draft of the novel, and in November 2015, I had a book in my hands.

I'd been in touch with Claire Eddy—my editor-to-be—before about a different project. While she said no to that one, her kind feedback encouraged me to approach her with my new project in February 2016.

Fast-forward to June of the same year, and there I was with a two-book deal from Tor.com, represented by the wonderful Cameron McClure of Donald Maass Literary Agency.

SU: What advice do you have for young writers who are struggling through the first draft of a fantasy novel?

LL: You can do it. You can. Just keep on writing. Word after word. Sentence after sentence. See, put them after each other like that. There's your first page, chapter, and the rest will follow. It's fine if you don't know how the story is going to end. Eventually you'll get there if you just keep on going.

Keep on writing. Write every day, even if it's just a word, even if that word is wrong, or perhaps it's the right one. One sentence a day is a lot. A whole page? You're on the right track.

Finish what you're writing. Cherish it. Toss it away in shame. Both are fine. As long as you feel something toward what you wrote, you're doing it right. If it's bad, you know you should probably try a different thing next time around. If it's good, then great!

Google. Google your favorite author and how they got where they are now. Read forums on how to become a writer. Learn the trade. Blog post after another, websites, too. Standard manuscript format, synopsis, query, publishing deal anatomy, foreign rights. You want to know all about them. Just in case one day…

So you have a novel in your hands? I'm so happy for you! Is it ready go or do you want to work on it still? It's ready? Then it's time for the next step on your journey.

Query agents. Get rejected. Cry. Get over it. Submit again. Rinse and repeat. This is writer's life.

Put the first novel into a drawer. Start a new one. Rinse and repeat until success follows. It might take only one iteration. Or then nine. But eventually, one day, maybe one day your writerly dreams will come true.

SU: What books, authors, or films most influenced you when writing THE FIVE DAUGHTERS OF THE MOON?

LL: I've always loved Russian literature. When I was fourteen, we read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in school. I was the only kid in my class that cheered on the assignment. But darn, that language, the impeding melancholy… that's my cup of tea. And if you want to read a novel with the most fabulous cast of characters ever brought to life, try War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Around the time The Five Daughters of the Moon came to me, I wanted to brush up my Swedish. Maria Turtschaninoff had just won the prestigious Finlandia Junior prize for her novel Maresi, and so I decided to try that one.

Maresi is a quiet and dark story that builds up slowly and stays with you months and months after reading the last page. The women in the story are strong, each in their own unique way. This novel inspired me to seek new dimensions in the stories I had to tell -- I realized that it was possible to write tales where women are in control of their own fates even if the world is set against them.

Now movies, you ask? Gimme historical dramas. I like the aesthetics of Downtown Abbey – the dresses, the country houses, ridiculous dedication to etiquette. Another favorite of mine are the Hercule Poirot movies. The best one is of course Murder on the Orient Express.

SU: What’s your favorite memory from the Clarion Workshop?

LL: Ah, Sarena, you should know that there are too many to name just one!

I think the utmost best thing about Clarion was making connections that last for years and years to come. We're still in touch with my group, and it's been immeasurably valuable to me! No one understands writer's pain and anxiety like another writer… And to see my fellow classmates selling stories and becoming editors – it's a fabulous thing to witness!

SU: How many stories did you write at Clarion, and what became of them?

LL: I had decided that I would write six stories in Clarion, and while I did stay true to my decision, I think I might have been better off with just four or five.

My Week 1 story was not good at all, and I knew it even when writing it. The sole purpose of that story was to remove the writerly blocks lingering in my blood and get going with the actual business of telling tales.

My Week 2 story, Operating Santa's Machine, was a hit amongst my Clarion classmates — but let's just say that there's not much market for naughty Santa stories.

My Week 3 story, Give Your All to the Cause, started as a silly car-ride conversation about buying political favors with organ donations. It took me half a year to finish this story, but once it was done, I was very happy with it. This one found home at Galaxy's Edge magazine and I think it's one of my best scifi stories to date.

My Week 4 story, The Village At the Shadow of a Sleeping Cyclop, crushed me. It spiraled out of control, and I couldn't finish it in the way I wanted. I'm still thinking of fixing it, because I like the imagery and concept. But there's so many stories I really want to tell, that this one might need to wait a few more years still.

After Week 4, I was sure I couldn't piece another story together. And then this epic poem came to me pretty much out of nowhere, and so Ocelia, Ocelia was born. Jeff VanderMeer bought it for weirdfictionreview.com, and there's a Finnish translation available, too, coming out hopefully this year still.

And then there was Week 6 — rather than letting an idea come to me, I decided to go with an idea I'd been toying with for some time already. The end result was crafted rather than organic. Not my finest piece.

SU: Do you have any readings or signings coming up? Where can readers find you?

LL: Worldcon 75 will be organized in Helsinki — my very hometown. I'll be participating in a panel there, and hanging out in countless others.

You can find more about me and these events in www.leenalikitalo.com.

Leena Likitalo hails from Finland, the land of endless summer days and long, dark winter nights. She lives with her husband on an island at the outskirts of Helsinki, the capital. But regardless of her remote location, stories find their way to her and demand to be told.

While growing up, Leena struggled to learn foreign languages. At sixteen, her father urged her to start reading in English, and thus she spent the next summer wading through his collection of fantasy and science fiction novels. She has fond memories of her "teachers": J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Roger Zelazny, and Vernor Vinge.

Leena breaks computer games for a living. When she's not working, she writes obsessively. And when she's not writing, she can be found at the stables riding horses and playing polocrosse.

You can visit her online at www.leenalikitalo.com.

Since solarpunk stories are (usually) science fiction, you can send your solarpunk story to any of the big science fiction magazines: Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, F&SF, Strange Horizons, etc. If the story’s good enough, and it fits what they’re seeking for their next issue, they might publish it. I’d love to read more solarpunk stories in the professional SFF magazines! But what are the magazines and anthologies that are actively looking for solarpunk right now? Below are ten paying markets, either themed issues, themed anthologies, or solarpunk-friendly magazines that might be interested in publishing your solarpunk story.
 
Just starting to submit your fiction to magazines and anthologies? Check out my Six Step Sequence for Submitting Short Stories for tips about how to make a good impression on editors. Not sure what solarpunk is? Check out the reference guide.
 
Know about solarpunk magazines, anthologies, or contests I left out? Leave the info in the comments!

Anthology, Published by Afrocentric Books
Submission Window: closes September 30, 2017
Length: 1,000 to 7,500 words
Payment: $0.01 per word
Description:
Futurism is a broad umbrella, encompassing many elements of science fiction and fantasy. For this anthology, we are most interested in science fiction. Time travel, space travel, cultures far advanced from our own. This world, other worlds, space stations, the setting doesn’t matter.
 
We want adult science fiction stories in diverse settings, featuring diverse people. The “in the future all people are a uniform color of café au lait” trope does not interest us. While it is not necessary for you to describe the physical features of all your characters, we do want to know that one of your main characters is of indigenous African descent.
 
Note: This is specifically a call for Afrofuturism, so a solarpunk story featuring characters of indigenous African descent could fit their needs.
 
Full Guidelines:
http://www.mugwumppress.com/afrocentric/afrofuturism/

Anthology, Edited by Rhonda Parrish, Published by Tyche Books
Submission Window: closes August 15, 2017
Length: up to 7500 words
Payment: $50 Canadian (non-Canadian authors welcome)
Description:
Fire: Demons, Dragons and Djinns will be filled with stories about every kind of fiery creature you can imagine, not only those listed in the subtitle. We’re looking for phoenixes, ifrits, salamanders, lava monsters and fiery beasts no one has ever heard of before. And of course this anthology will not be complete without at least one demon, dragon and djinn!
 
Note: In the editor’s Manuscript Wish List for this anthology, she specifically mentions wanting “a fiery solarpunk story.”
 
Full Guidelines:
http://www.rhondaparrish.com/call-for-submissions-fire/

Contest, Anthology
Submission Window: closes October 13, 2017
Length: up to 8,000 words
Payment: $2000 first prize, $500 for 5 runners up, + publication in anthology
Description:
We’re seeking stories set in a near-future city where significant strides have been made toward improving air quality, climate adaptation, or even net positive impacts on climate and air quality.
 
We want to see your vivid ideas and concepts, but don’t forget the basics of story: strong voice, compelling characters driven by real desires, facing serious obstacles that sum to an engaging plot and story.
 
You need not paint us a utopia – we don’t really believe in those. We believe that at any given time, depending on individual perspective, every city has dystopian and utopian aspects. The key is to show us a solution, but don’t strip it of realistic political, scientific, or logistical obstacles, and don’t neglect the possibility and ramifications of unintended consequences from even the best solution.

Note: The first entry to this contest is free, but it costs $24 to submit a second story.
 
Full Guidelines:
http://www.futurescapescontest.com/

Magazine, Edited by Djibril al-Ayad
Submission Window: ongoing
Length: up to 10,000 words
Payment: $20 per story
Description:
The Future Fire publishes beautiful and useful fiction and poetry that focuses on the social-political elements of imaginary, futuristic, fantastic, horrifying, surreal or otherwise speculative universes. We are particularly interested in feminist, queer, postcolonial and ecological themes, writing by under-represented voices, and stories from outside the Anglophone world.
 
Note: The Future Fire has also been collecting a list of recommendations for optimistic science fiction books.
 
Full Guidelines:
http://www.futurefire.net/

Anthology, Edited by Sarena Ulibarri, Published by World Weaver Press
Submission Window: August 15 to November 15, 2017
Length: up to 8000 words
Payment: Ranging from token ($10) to semi-pro (see guidelines for details)
Description:
Solarpunk is a type of eco-conscious science fiction that imagines an optimistic future founded on renewable energies. It might take place in a wind-powered skyscraper or on a solar-powered robotic farm, in a bustling green-roofed metropolis or in a small but tech-saavy desert village. Often coupled with an art nouveau aesthetic, and always inclusive and diverse, solarpunk stories show the ways we have adapted to climate change, or the ways we have overcome it.
 
For this anthology, I want to see solarpunk summers. Show me futuristic stories that take place in summer, whether that involves a summer night in a rooftop garden, or characters adapting to extreme heat and weather, or maybe an annual migration to cooler lands. Keep it planet-based (Earth or other), and optimistic. Solarpunk worlds aren’t necessarily utopias, but they definitely aren’t dystopias.

We're a northern hemisphere publisher, but southern hemisphere summers are also welcome!
 
Note: Full disclosure, I’m the primary editor for this project.
 
Full Guidelines:
http://www.worldweaverpress.com/submit-anthologies.html

Anthology, Edited by E. O. Smith, Published by Radiant Crown Publishing
Submission Window: December 1, 2017 to January 31, 2018
Length: 1001 to 40,000 words
Payment: $0.01 per word
Description:
Year Two Theme: Rebus
Language offers up a whole new world if one can decipher the many meanings hidden within a word. Year Two of Hyperion and Theia wants stories and poetry that runs the gamut of genres and offers to the reader a rebus of sorts, filled with cryptic messages. Submit a sci-fi caper featuring humanity thwarting an alien invader with the use of signs and symbols. Dazzle us with a comedic horror in which communication with the dead takes on a whole new meaning.
 
Note: In their “Of Interest” section, they list: “Dieselpunk, Solarpunk, Weird Westerns, Cyberpunk, Magic Realism, Gothic Horror, Retrofuturism, Afrofuturism, Wuxia, Romantic Suspense, Historical, Capers, Gothic Romance, Neo-/Noir, and lesser known sub-genres”
 
Full Guidelines:
http://hyperionandtheia.com/index.php/submissions/

Anthology, Edited by Laura Harvey, Published by Pen and Kink Publishing
Submission Window: October 1 to November 30, 2017
Length: 1000 to 15000 words
Payment:  $10 + copy of the anthology
Description:
This anthology will explore resistance and rebellion within a romantic context—because sometimes love has to take a stand—but it will also include stories of refuge because you can’t fight all the time, and sometimes love is the only thing that brings you peace (or at least a place to breathe).
 
We want stories of feisty park rangers fighting the good fight, couples falling in love at protest marches (bonus points if they start out on opposite sides of the issue) and people forced to choose between what is right and what is easy. We want stories where a character’s only emotional refuge is within the arms of their lover and ones where couples work together to do the things they believe will make the world a better place.
 
We’re open to stories at every heat and kink level, and any sort of pairing (or more-ing) that you can imagine. Stories must have a real conflict and tension with a HEA or HFN ending.
 
Note: This is a romance anthology, and most stories included will likely be contemporary or historical, but a near-future solarpunk romance still has a good shot at fitting what they’re looking for.
 
Full Guidelines:
http://www.penandkinkpub.com/home/rebellion-and-refuge/

Magazine, Edited by Michael J. DeLuca
Submission Window: ongoing
Length: up to 45,000 words
Payment: $0.06 per word
Description:
The short version: fiction preferably at least a tiny bit speculative, nonfiction preferably more creative than journalistic, poetry tending towards the narrative and preferably with some thematic heft, art your guess is as good as mine. But the heart of what I want is your searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be, as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth.
 
Note: Focused on stories of “environmental  justice.” Darker tales or “pre-solarpunk” may do better here than stories that skip over how a solarpunk society was created.
 
Full Guidelines:
http://reckoning.press/submit/

Magazine, Edited by John Carimando
Submission Window: closes September 1, 2017
Length: 250-500 words is especially welcome; longer works may be serialized.
Payment: “We will always meet or exceed SFWA minimum compensation guidelines.” ($0.06 per word)
Description:
Issue Submission Themes—Issue #4: Resistance to oppression.
 
We welcome submissions of art and writing that approaches retrofuturism through a progressive lens. We are looking for forward-looking and optimistic science and science-fiction. Sensitive topics can be part of a good story, but a vision of a future better than our present is the focus of Retro Future.
 
Note: Retro Future is looking for both stories and comics. Future submission themes will vary, but their request for optimistic science fiction carries over between issues.
 
Full Guidelines:
http://www.galileogames.com/retro-future/

Contest, Anthology
Submission Window: closes August 25, 2017
Length: 2000 to 4000 words
Payment: $1500 + trip to Japan, + publication on website
Description:
Your short story is a first-person account of the passenger seated in 14C aboard ANA Flight #008. What does this person experience as they arrive in 2037 and explore a changed world? How has emerging (or not-yet-invented) technology altered society for the better, and how does your character discover and interact with this technology?
 
We are hopeful for our future, and we ask that your story creatively weaves technology and culture, envisioning an optimistic and exciting future for mankind.
 
Note: This contest is prompt-based, and writers should read some of the other “seats” to see what they’re looking for and what’s already been done. No fee to enter.
 
Full Guidelines:
https://seat14c.com/future_ideas/new

Guest Post by K.T. Ivanrest, author of the story "Lightless" in Equus, an anthology forthcoming July 18, 2017 from World Weaver Press

I seem to have a conflict problem. In the first draft of my Sirens story, "Threshold," there wasn’t enough conflict. In contrast, my early drafts of "Lightless" had too much. Below is a section of the first scene from an earlier version of "Lightless," and while I ultimately couldn’t make the fading/crime connection work with the rest of the story, I do like the extra tension it brought and wanted to share it (because what the world needs right now is more conflict, right? Right?...).

(Note: because it’s an early draft, it’s not the best-edited excerpt you’ll ever read. Bear with me.)

 
 
[Fulsa, locked in a tower with his slave Phaios, awaits the arrival of the empress.]
 
He peered down at his hands, but could discern no difference in their glow. It was impossible, here in this prison with only Phaios for company, to tell whether there had been any more change, any further dimming. Beside the lightless slave he always looked radiant, so bright he could almost forget what was happening, and then the empress would arrive for her weekly visit and he would see the truth again.

Her footsteps were soft tps on the polished stone stairway, her presence announced by the gradual spread of light that preceded her up the staircase, pressing away the shadows with proud disdain and careless ease.

“Your Imperial Majesty.” He knelt as she ascended the last of the stairs, the silver fabric of her coat rustling softly on the stone, scattering specks of light like jewels for the less fortunate.

“Fulsa.” Did she practice making his name sound like an insult, or did it just come naturally, a ready accompaniment to her anger and shame? “Another turn of the heavens. Are you, perhaps, finally prepared to make a confession?”

For the briefest moment he considered saying yes, inventing an offense and apologizing and begging her to let him free. But of course it would do no good—the fading would continue and she’d know he had lied, and still she would not believe he’d done nothing.

“No,” he said at last.

Her eyes narrowed to slits, her fury flashing like her ever-present light. “You persist in lying to me. Every day you pale further into night and yet you continue to insist that you are innocent.”

“I am. I’ve done nothing, I don’t know why this is hap—“

“Ridiculous,” she snapped. “I could overlook your crime, whatever it is, but your arrogance and dishonesty are unforgiveable.”

She gave him a long, searching look, perhaps trying to decide whether arrogance and dishonesty were severe enough defects to cause someone to fade. But if that were the case, he thought bitterly, she would have faded long ago, and quiet, dependable Phaios would be sitting on the throne in her place.

He shook his head and forced himself to meet her eyes. “I will not incriminate myself.”

“Then we are finished.” She spun, the glass beads woven into her hair clicking as she moved.

“Please.” He reached after her but dared not touch even her coat. “Please, is there nothing I can do or say to prove myself to you?”

I want to go home.

A long silence, pure and perfect like all the silence here in this desolate place, away from the city, from the stables and his team, from the thousands of citizens lighting the island with their glow.

At last the empress spoke, voice hard as stone. “I will not visit again. When you are prepared to confess your crime, send word.”

She strode forward and he leapt after her, desperate. “Wait, mother, plea—”

By the time she’d spun again he was back on his knees, hot with shame, but the fire did nothing to increase his glow, which instead seemed to dim beneath the empress’ glare.

“Look at you. Cowering like a lightless.” She turned once more and strode toward the staircase, and though he knew exactly what she was going to say next, it didn’t hurt any less to hear it. “You are no son of mine.”
 
How does it compare to the final version of "Lightless"? You’ll have to read the story and see! </shameless plug>

K.T. Ivanrest wanted to be a cat or horse when she grew up, but after failing to metamorphose into either, she began writing stories about them instead. Soon the horses became unicorns and the cats sprouted wings, and once the dragons arrived, there was no turning back. When not writing, K.T. can be found sewing and drinking decaf coffee. She has a PhD in Classical Studies, which will come in handy when aliens finally make contact and it turns out they speak Latin.