Brianna da Silva written by Brianna da Silva
August 1, 2021 1

Mental health and trauma are often represented poorly in fiction, particularly in the fantasy genre. And particularly when dealing with female characters and sexual assault.

I wrote an article earlier this year expressing many of my frustrations with this issue. Today, fellow fantasy author Lucy McLaren and I decided to dive even deeper into the topic of mental health in fantasy, in a two-part interview series on both of our blogs.

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Brianna da Silva written by Brianna da Silva
May 12, 2021 1

In 2015, Corinne Duyvis created the now-popular #ownvoices tag on Twitter as a way to highlight books where the author shared a marginalized identity with the protagonist. For example, if a lesbian author wrote a story with a lesbian protagonist, that would be considered “own voices” for “lesbian representation.”

This term and hashtag started as an innocent way to highlight books that weren’t getting enough attention and support. But its usage has spiraled out of control into something rather toxic in the publishing industry.

Here’s where #ownvoices went wrong.

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Brianna da Silva written by Brianna da Silva
February 24, 2021 2

This is Chapter 7 of my story about femininity, sexuality, and faith. Read Chapters 1 — 6 first.


I saw the boy and his family many times in the next few months.

Here and there, I learned little things about him — examples of his character, personality, and interests — which I hoarded and guarded closely, like a silent dragon clutching treasure in her cave.

I even learned his name.

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Brianna da Silva written by Brianna da Silva
January 10, 2021 0

It’s undeniable: H.P. Lovecraft was an astoundingly important author. His stories left a permanent mark on horror and fantasy, and both genres are better for it.

There is a dark side to Lovecraft’s fiction, however. And no, I’m not talking about the terrifying “dark gods,” nefarious magic, and alien races that show up in his stories. I’m talking about something deeper — a frightful outlook and philosophy that I find myself at direct odds with.

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Brianna da Silva written by Brianna da Silva
April 17, 2020 0

I’ve been reading Tamora Pierce’s classic Song of the Lioness series, about a girl named Alanna who dresses up like a boy and becomes a knight in defiance of her culture’s sexist gender expectations.

While flawed and outdated (the series was originally written in the 1980s), these books deeply resonate with me. However, I have a major criticism of the third book in this series, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, in terms of the faulty feminism it represents.

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