Three Question Interviews with Authors from The Best of Bad-Ass Faeries

I encountered author and editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail via Broad Universe, an organization for women working in speculative fiction, and was immediately intrigued by her "Bad-Ass Faeries" project. So she wrangled together a few of her authors and let me ask them just how bad-ass those faeries are.

The authors below are all contributors to eSpec Books’ upcoming anthology The Best of Bad-Ass Faeries, which is currently funding on Kickstarter. The book is a reprint anthology featuring the highlights of the award-winning Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, which just celebrated ten years in print. The first four anthologies are now out of print, but the Best Of is the editors’ way of preserving the series and hopefully continuing it.

See what the authors have to say about their Bad-Ass Faeries, and then check out the Kickstarter here.

Kelly A. Harmon, author of “Selkskin Deep”

What’s bad-ass about your faeries?
Cade Owen, the faerie in my story, “Selkskin Deep”, is a selkie (a seal who can shed his skin and become a man) and a Navy SEAL. You don’t get more bad-ass than a Navy SEAL!  This character has both mythical powers, and is in tip-top physical shape—but in all the years he’s lived, he’s never quite understood his “human” side. It’s that curiosity about how humans live their lives that brings him to be on board the USS Livingstone at the height of the Vietnam War.

Did you write your story (or stories) specifically for the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology, or had you already written a story about a bad-ass faerie that just happened to be a perfect fit? 
This story was written specifically for the Bad Ass Faeries series. It started off with a brief email conversation with the editor along the lines of, “wouldn’t it be cool to have a selkie who was also a Navy SEAL?”  I ran with the challenge.  But the story is much deeper than that. 

What are you working on now, and where can readers find you?
I’m currently working on the fourth book in my Charm City Darkness series—an urban fantasy that takes place in Baltimore. 

You know that old saying, ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’?

Case in point for Assumpta Mary-Margaret O’Connor.  Her good deed gets her demon-marked, making her fair game for any passing demon (and a few specific ones). But she’s managed to survive—with help from angels, ghosts, and witches—through three books so far: Stoned in Charm City, A Favor for a Fiend, and A Blue Collar Proposition.  The fourth book--In the Eye of the Beholder--is about Assumpta’s best friend Jo, and should be available in May.

For folks who love short stories, I’ve co-edited two dark fiction anthologies with Vonnie Winslow Crist:  Hides the Dark Tower and In a Cat’s Eye.  We’ll be reading for a third anthology in March, Dark Luminous Wings, which should be available in October.

Find Kelly A. Harmon Online:
Facebook I Twitter I Amazon I Website

Jody Lynn Nye, author of “Fifteen Percent”

What’s bad-ass about your faeries?
My faerie is not afraid to get seriously physical to get her author back to his keyboard and writing.
 
Did you write your story (or stories) specifically for the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology, or had you already written a story about a bad-ass faerie that just happened to be a perfect fit?
My story is original to the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology.
 
What are you working on now, and where can readers find you?
I'm working on three different novel collaborations, four short story assignments, a new SF series, and a new fantasy series.

Find Jody Lynn Nye Online:
Facebook I Twitter I Goodreads I Website

L. Jagi Lamplighter, series editor and author of “A Not-So-Silent Night”

What’s bad-ass about your faeries?
Tom-O-Thunder is the guardian for an Irish-American family. This gives him the sort of attitude that only a Leprechaun whose charge is in danger can have.
 
Did you write your story (or stories) specifically for the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology, or had you already written a story about a bad-ass faerie that just happened to be a perfect fit?
 Just for the B-A Faeries anthology.
 
What are you working on now, and where can readers find you?
 
The Awful Truth about Forgetting, book four of the Books of Unexpected Enlightenment.
 
Find L. Jagi Lamplighter Online:
Website

John French, author of “Too Many Deaths”

What’s bad-ass about your faeries?
There are several kinds of bad ass fairies in my story "So many deaths." There are those who despite being tortured can still turn and attack those they believe to be their captors
 
There's a member of the Watch who despite politics and circumstance still manages to achieve some sort of justice
 
And there's a faerie SWAT team. It doesn’t get more bad-ass than that
 
Did you write your story (or stories) specifically for the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology, or had you already written a story about a bad-ass faerie that just happened to be a perfect fit?
I wrote my stories, there were two of them which were combined into one, at the request of Danielle who specifically asked me for a "Faerie Swat team." 
 
What are you working on now, and where can readers find you?
Along with Patrick Thomas, I’m currently editing Camelot 13, due out in 2018 from Padwolf Publishing and Monsters Among Us, a new collection featuring the Baltimore Police Department Monster Hunter Bianca Jones,  should be out this spring. As for finding me, I'm on Facebook, and readers are free to email me at [email protected]

Danielle Ackley-McPhail, series editor and author of “Within the Guardian Bell”

What’s bad-ass about your faeries?
I have two sets of faeries in my story. The first is Lance Cosain, leader of a biker gang called The Wild Hunt MC. Lance is half fae, half human, and all bad-ass. He is also an ongoing character for me in all my BAF stories. The other faerie in this particular story is a road gremlin who is literally the embodiment of the road. This is relevant to the story because they say there is a love/hate relationship between bikers and the road that is kept in balance by respect. This story is about when something comes in the way of that usual respect…blood is involved.

Did you write your story (or stories) specifically for the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology, or had you already written a story about a bad-ass faerie that just happened to be a perfect fit?
My stories were all written specifically for the series, but they have also grown beyond the series into novels. There are two so far, The Halfling’s Court and The Redcaps’ Queen. Both are the tale of Lance Cosain and how he came to challenge the High King of Faerie without even knowing it. Needless to say there are power struggles.

What are you working on now, and where can readers find you?
Goodness... too many things to list here, but primary of which is Eternal Wanderings, a spin-off novella that is based on my Eternal Cycle trilogy about a whole other kind of bad-ass fae. And the third book featuring Lance and his gang, The High King’s Fool. You can find out about me at www.sidhenadaire.com and www.especbooks.com, plus on social media. I tend to stand out.