Solarpunk follows in the tradition of steampunk and cyberpunk as the embodiment of a counterculture ideology: innovating a way of life that is better for the present and ultimately better for the future. Concepts like clean energy and sustainability are integral to solarpunk as they are outlets for societal reform. The fight for positive change is where -punk comes into play.

There are various communities online that are imagining and building solarpunk as an idea and an aesthetic, but as a literary movement, it is as yet largely undefined. That’s where you come in. Sunvault is the SF community’s opportunity to define the solarpunk genre. We want to see your conceptions and interpretations of the genre. We want to see what solarpunk looks like to you.

Love has never been Cheryl Brigham’s plan. She’s not cut out for second dates, relationships, or happily ever afters.

All that changes when she’s on vacation in Paris. First dates lead to second dates, which leads to a whole lot more than she ever bargained for—but she knows it’ll all over when she returns home. That’s okay with her.

Until it’s not.

When it’s no-strings-attached, what will Cheryl do when her heart gets tangled up?

About the Author

Cover illustration by Meghan Moss

Sixteen-year-old Tashi has spent their life training as an inhabiter, a soldier who spies and kills using a bonded animal. When the capital falls after a brutal siege, Tashi flees to a remote monastery to hide. But when the invading army turns the monastery into a hospital, Tashi catches the eye of Xian, the regiment’s fearless young commander.

Tashi spies on Xian’s every move. In front of his men, Xian seems dangerous, even sadistic, but Tashi sees a more vulnerable side of the enemy commander – a side that draws them to Xian.

When their spying reveals that everything the inhabiter's academy taught was a lie, Tashi faces a choice: save their country or the boy they've started to love? But while Tashi grapples with the decision, their volatile bonded tiger doesn't question her allegiances. Katala slaughters Xian’s soldiers, leading the enemy to hunt her. But an inhabiter’s bond to their animal is for life – when Katala dies, so will Tashi.

About the Author

Cassie went blind the day before the asteroid struck.  There had been no warnings from NASA or the White House, just as Cassie's loss of sight had not been foreshadowed by blurriness or headaches.  Once blind, though, Cassie warned our mountain town about the asteroid.  No one believed her, of course.

"It's projection," my brother said at the dinner table.  "Blindness is the worst thing that could happen to her, so she's coping by imagining the worst thing that could happen to the rest of us."
           
My brother and Cassie had dated in high school, until he left to study psychology at the state university.  Now they worked together at the grocery store on Main Street.  He'd been there when her sight disappeared.
           
"Right in the middle of a sale," he said.  "She was handing Mrs. Ross her change and all of a sudden she dropped the money and started feeling around."
           
My father took a second helping of mashed potatoes.
           
"See now, if you'd stayed here and married her, that would be your problem.  Probably have to bring up blind kids too.  I always knew something wasn't right with that girl."
           
"Is she okay?" I asked.
           
"She's home now," my brother said.  "Her parents don't want visitors.  Especially after she started with all that crazy talk about the asteroid."
           
But we knew the next day it wasn't crazy talk after all.