Skyler White | |
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 White dancing at Minicon 50, April 2015 | |
| Born | 1967 (age 56–57) Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Alma mater | Franklin & Marshall College University of Texas at Austin |
| Genre | Fantasy, science fiction, romance, erotica |
| Website | |
| www | |
Skyler White (born 1967) is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction, including the novel The Incrementalists co-authored with Steven Brust. She is also the author of two novels in the genres of romance and erotica.
White grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. [1] The child of two college professors, she attended a performing arts high school, originally intending to pursue a career in ballet. [2] [3] She graduated from Franklin and Marshall College, where she studied English and drama. [1] She has earned a master's degree in theatre. [2]
Among the writers who were her favorites or her greatest influences, White listed Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, Rosemary Sutcliff, George Orwell, Anne Rice, Tom Robbins, Neil Gaiman, Emma Bull, Margaret Atwood and Steven Brust. [3]
White's first two novels were both published in 2010 by Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group specializing in publishing erotica romance novels. [4] Her debut novel, and Falling, Fly, was described as a "dark fable of desire between a fallen angel and a self-medicating neuroscientist in a steampunk hell." [5] Library Journal named it one of the Best Sci-Fi Fantasy Books of 2010, and called it one of that year's "most unusual blends of supernatural fiction and urban fantasy." [5] According to Publishers Weekly , the novel was "a trippy urban fantasy, an esoteric battle between myth and science told in floods of evocative prose." [4]
In Dreams Begin, White's second novel, featured historical figures Maud Gonne and Irish poet William Butler Yeats as principal characters. [6] A review in Publishers Weekly called it a "peculiar time travel romance," suggesting that the novel would appeal to "realists who grump when modern heroines easily abandon their commitments and expectations once in the past," and asserting that, in contrast, White "ends up treating the past as disposable instead." [6]
White's later erotica and romance stories have included interactive stories, published as e-books by SilkWords, including two novellas about an organization called the Society of Erotic Adventurers (SEA). [7] White has also independently published Offerings, an episodic work described as "serialized sacred erotica." [7] [8]
White undertook a writing collaboration with science fiction author Steven Brust, whom she met in 2010, based in part on an idea that editor Tappan King had suggested to Brust years earlier. [1] The resulting story concerns love and conflict among several members of a secret society of 200 people known as Incrementalists, having an unbroken lineage of shared memories reaching back 40,000 years, and a seemingly modest mission: "to make the world better, a little bit at a time." [9] Library Journal described the protagonists as "kinder, gentler Illuminati who use words and subtler persuasion to make the world a better place." [10]
Tor Books published The Incrementalists on September 24, 2013. [11] The Winnipeg Free Press described it as "witty, sometimes cheeky," [12] and Publishers Weekly called it a "philosophical and inventive urban fantasy," citing the cerebral appeal of its "layered mystery, innovative concept, and fast-moving plot." [9] In a starred review in Booklist , David Pitt wrote that the novel was imaginative, but difficult to categorize: "It's not quite a comedy, but bits of it are quite funny. It's a fantasy, to be sure, but it's grounded in today's world and references real historical events. It's cleverly constructed, populated with characters readers will enjoy hanging out with, and packed with twists and nifty surprises. If you have to call it something, call it genius at work." [13] Library Journal called it "an odd stepchild of magical realism, with hints of John Crowley, Tim Powers, and even a dash of Umberto Eco", [10] while the Daytona Beach News-Journal found the book most reminiscent of a Roger Zelazny novel. [14]
Tor has published two additional stories about the Incrementalists as e-books (also available online) – Fireworks in the Rain by Brust, [15] and Strongest Conjuration by White. [16]
The authors' second novel in the series, [17] [18] titled The Skill of Our Hands, was published by Tor in January 2017. [19]
White has publicly remarked on the confusion of her name with a character from the television series Breaking Bad , which premiered in 2008. After the publication of The Incrementalists in 2013, White commented, "I had the name first, dammit," further noting that she had turned off Google Alerts for her name. [20]
When asked in 2010 whether Skyler White was her real name, she responded, "'Skyler White' is the name I use every day. 'Skyler' is a nickname... but I've been 'Skyler' or 'Skye' to everyone who knows me for more than twenty years." [21]
White has won awards as a stage director, and her professional experience also includes advertising work. [2] She appeared on a reality TV program in 2006, and she has described herself as an "existentialist witch." [7] She is a mother of two, married to inventor Scott White, and currently lives in Austin, Texas. [1] [2]
Steven Karl Zoltán Brust is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He is best known for his series of novels about the assassin Vlad Taltos, one of a disdained minority group of humans living on a world called Dragaera. His recent novels also include The Incrementalists (2013) and its sequel The Skill of Our Hands (2017), with co-author Skyler White.
Emma Bull is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her novels include the Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Bone Dance and the urban fantasy War for the Oaks. She is also known for a series of anthologies set in Liavek, a shared universe that she created with her husband, Will Shetterly. As a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, she has been a member of the Minneapolis-based folk/rock bands Cats Laughing and The Flash Girls.
Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group, a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles.
Patricia Collins Wrede is an American author of fantasy literature. She is known for her Enchanted Forest Chronicles series for young adults, which was voted number 84 in NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels list.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden is an American science fiction editor, fanzine writer, essayist, and workshop instructor. She is a consulting editor for Tor Books and is well known for her weblog, Making Light. She has also worked for Federated Media Publishing, when in 2007 she was hired to revive the comment section for the blog Boing Boing. Nielsen Hayden has been nominated for Hugo Awards five times.
Adam Stemple is a Celtic-influenced American folk rock musician, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also the author of several fantasy short stories and novels, including two series of novels co-written with his mother, writer Jane Yolen.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Will Shetterly is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction best known for his novel Dogland (1997). The novel is inspired by his childhood at the tourist attraction Dog Land owned by his parents. He won the Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy & Science Fiction for his novel Elsewhere (1991), and was a finalist with Nevernever (1993); both books are set in Terri Windling's The Borderland Series shared universe. He has also written short stories for various Borderland anthologies.
Jeff Mariotte is an American author who lives in Arizona. As well as his own original work, he is best known for writing novels and comic books based on licensed properties.
Nnedimma Nkemdili "Nnedi" Okorafor is a Nigerian American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.
Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.
Cats Laughing is a folk rock band, founded in the late 1980s in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and revived in 2015. Several of its members, including Emma Bull and best-selling author Steven Brust, are better known as writers of fantasy and science fiction.
Sarah A. Hoyt is a Portuguese-born American science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction writer. She moved to the United States in the early 1980s, married Dan Hoyt in 1985, and became an American citizen in 1988.
Shiloh Walker is an American author of contemporary and erotic romance novels and novellas. She has written under the pen name J.C. Daniels.
MaryJanice Davidson is an American author who writes mostly paranormal romance, but also young adult literature and non-fiction. She is the creator of the popular Undead series. She is both a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. She won a 2004 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and was nominated for the same award in 2005. Davidson lives in Minnesota with her husband and two children. She grew up on military bases and moved often, as she was the child of a United States Air Force airman. Pamela Clare of USA Today wrote, "It's Davidson's humor, combined with her innate storytelling ability and skill with dialogue, that has lifted her from small presses to the big best-seller lists.". Davidson is the mother of fantasy author C. M. Alongi.
The Khaavren Romances are a series of fantasy novels by American writer Steven Brust, set in the fictional world of Dragaera. The novels are swashbuckling adventure stories involving war, intrigue, and romance. They are heavily influenced by and homage The d'Artagnan Romances written by Alexandre Dumas. The series is written by Brust in the voice and persona of a Dragaeran novelist, Paarfi of Roundwood, whose style is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Dumas, matching both his swashbuckling sense of adventure and his penchant for tangents and longwindedness. The Khaavren Romances books have all used Dumas novels as their chief inspiration, recasting the plots of those novels to fit within Brust's established world of Dragaera. The first five books in the cycle are inspired by the Musketeers books, while 2020's The Baron of Magister Valley uses The Count of Monte Cristo as a starting point.
The Phoenix Guards is a fantasy novel by American writer Steven Brust, the first novel in the Khaavren Romances series, set in the fictional world of Dragaera. Like the other books in that series, the novel is heavily influenced by the d'Artagnan Romances written by Alexandre Dumas and is written by Brust in the voice and persona of a Dragaeran novelist, Paarfi of Roundwood, whose style is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Dumas, matching both his swashbuckling sense of adventure and his penchant for tangents and longwindedness. Brust describes the book as "a blatant ripoff of The Three Musketeers." The Khaavren Romances books have all used Dumas novels as their chief inspiration, recasting the plots of those novels to fit within Brust's established world of Dragaera. The next several books in the cycle are inspired by the subsequent Musketeers books, while 2020's The Baron of Magister Valley uses The Count of Monte Cristo as a starting point.
The Viscount of Adrilankha is a fantasy novel by American writer Steven Brust, published in three volumes. Collectively, the three books form the third novel in the Khaavren Romances series. It is set in the fantasy world of Dragaera. Like the other books in the series, the novel is heavily influenced by and homages the d'Artagnan Romances written by Alexandre Dumas, and is written by Brust in the voice and persona of a Dragaeran novelist, Paarfi of Roundwood, whose style is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Dumas, matching both his swashbuckling sense of adventure and his penchant for tangents and longwindedness. The book's format and title correspond with The Vicomte de Bragelonne, the multi-volume third book of the d'Artagnan Romances. The Khaavren Romances books have all used Dumas novels as their chief inspiration, recasting the plots of those novels to fit within Brust's established world of Dragaera. The first five books in the cycle are inspired by the Musketeers books, while 2020's The Baron of Magister Valley uses The Count of Monte Cristo as a starting point.
Gregory Frost is an American author of science fiction and fantasy, and directs a fiction writing workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. A graduate of the Clarion Workshop, he has been invited back as instructor several times, including the first session following its move to the University of California at San Diego in 2007. He is also active in the Interstitial Arts Foundation.
The Baron of Magister Valley is a fantasy novel by American writer Steven Brust, set in the fictional world of Dragaera and part of the Khaavren Romances. Like the other books in that series, the novel is heavily influenced by the d'Artagnan Romances written by Alexandre Dumas, and is written by Brust in the voice and persona of a Dragaeran novelist, Paarfi of Roundwood, whose style is a tongue-in-cheek parody of Dumas, matching both his swashbuckling sense of adventure and his penchant for tangents and longwindedness.
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