Release Day! Bright Green Futures: Solarpunk Anthology edited by Susan Kaye Quinn ~ My Thoughts

Happy Release Day!

Congratulations Susan

on the release today of

Bright Green Futures!

Bright Green Futures: Solarpunk Anthology by Susan Kaye Quinn

Short Stories, Solarpunk, 238 pages

Published April 22, 2025 by Twisted Space LLC

SHORT STORY COLLECTION

The Bright Green Futures: 2024 anthology is a collection of short solarpunk stories from guests of the Bright Green Futures podcast, where we lift up stories to build a better world. These hopeful climate-fiction stories include clicky space centipedes, sentient trees, a flooded future Rio de Janeiro and characters trying to find their place in a climate-impacted world. Each story imagines a way for us to survive the future, together.

Bright Green Futures: 2024 contains six short stories plus a bonus prose-poem.

The Doglady and the Rainstorm by Renan Bernardo

What Kind of Bat is This? by Sarena Ulibarri

Centipede Station by T. K. Rex

A Merger in Corn Country by Danielle Arostegui

Ancestors, Descendants by BrightFlame

The Park of the Beast by T. K. Rex

Coriander by Ana Sun

My thoughts about Bright Green Futures ~~ 

I've loved everything I've read by Susan Kay Quinn. I'm always very interested to see what project she's got going on, what words she's writing. She is the editor of Bright Green Futures, a wonderful anthology of stories that will make readers think about the future of our world. 

As with any anthology of short stories, some of the stories will speak to me, the reader, and some will leave me scratching my head. But that's the beauty of it all, isn't it? That one story that takes me out of my comfort zone and makes me think. I truly believe this is the goal of any project that Susan is a part of. 

This was a quick read but also an inspiring way to spend my time. I thoroughly enjoyed each story and highly recommend it to all who have a concern about the future.

I received an ARC of Bright Green Futures and this is my honest opinion of the book.

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About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn has designed aircraft engines and researched global warming, but now she uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from hopeful climate fiction to gritty cyberpunk. Sue believes being gentle and healing is radical and disruptive. Her short fiction can be found in Grist, Solarpunk Magazine, Reckoning, and all her novels and short stories can be found on her website. She is the host of the Bright Green Futures podcast. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Susan

Website | Goodreads | BlueSky

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Release Day! Closet Full of Time and Other Dark Tales by Susan Kaye Quinn ~ My Thoughts #ClosetFullOfTime

Happy Release Day!

Congratulation Susan

on the release today of

Closet Full of Time and Other Dark Tales!

 

Closet Full of Time and Other Dark Tales by Susan Kaye Quinn

Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads 63 pages

Published September 17, 2024 by Twisted Space LLC

The thing the machines consume is us.

Ready to lease out your mind? Or pay for your next meal with involuntary ads?

The Closet Full of Time collection contains five short stories that speak to that sinking feeling that we're serving the machines instead of the other way around. That our inventions are taking things we can’t afford to lose.

1 - Welcome to the Mindshare Program

2 - How to Treat Your Algorithm

3 - Indexed

4 - The Everything Machine

5 - Closet Full of Time

If you think AI should liberate us from folding laundry, not make our art, these stories are for you.

  

My thoughts about Closet Full of Time  ~~

Closet Full of Time and Other Dark Tales contains five intriguing, thought-provoking stories that, while you could rush through them, you need to read slowly and savor each and every word. Each one contains so much wisdom and insight into what our world could turn into, if we're not careful.

I have read a lot of Susan's stories and each time I start one or begin one of her series, I am taken out of my reading comfort zone and embark on a reading experience like I've never had before. She has introduced me to so many new worlds and ideas. She is such an informed person with so much wisdom to pass on to all of us. 

Closet Full of Time.... was both an enjoyable read as well as being a little scary. What if our world truly becomes what she plays out in these five short stories? Very mind-blowing to think about. I loved all the stories though and highly recommend this collection. 

I received an ARC of Closet Full of Time and this is my honest opinion.

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About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn is an environmental engineer/rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from hopepunk climate fiction to futuristic spec fic, with side trips into cyberpunk and steampunk romance. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German and French, and featured in several anthologies, including placing 3rd in Grist’s 2022, Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors contest. 

Susan grew up in California, got a bunch of engineering degrees (Aerospace, Mechanical, and Environmental), and worked everywhere from NASA to NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). She has designed aircraft engines, studied global warming, and held elected office (as a school board member). She writes full-time from outside Pittsburgh, watching the birds and deer from her deck, trying to dream a better future into being.

Susan is a full member of SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association) under her SKQ penname and a member of RWA (Romance Writers Association) under a penname that she keeps secret unless you bring tea and pinky-swear not to tell. She’s also a graduate of the 2022 class of Viable Paradise, a member of PARSEC, and a Published Penn with PennWriters.

Susan wrote this at a Sci-Fi panel on hopepunk, and she thinks it’s as good a lighthouse as any (for her). ~ Author's website

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Threads | Goodreads | Instagram

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Release Day! Yet You Cry When It Hurts by Susan Kaye Quinn ~ My Thoughts on the Nothing is Promised Series! #YetYouCryWhenItHurts #NothingIsPromised @susankayequinn

Happy Release Day!

Congrats Susan

on the release today of

Yet You Cry When It Hurts!

Yet You Cry When It Hurts by Susan Kaye Quinn

(Nothing is Promised #4)

Dystopian Fiction, 262 pages

Published March 9, 2023 by Twisted Space LLC

When the world is drowning, diplomacy is more than handshakes and headlines.

Nitara Desai has spent her life negotiating international agreements, easing points of conflict, and averting disasters. Worst-case scenarios belong in her nightmares, not the IEC’s daily reports. On a calm day, being a director at the International Energy Consortium only requires fixing CarbonCon translators for flustered Brazilian delegates. A thankless job, but the world is still drowning in CO2—there’s no choice but to keep treading.

On a bad day, it’s not just the Brazilians acting up, but the Americans walking out, and now the Governor of Southern California insisting on a clandestine meeting. Then a text comes from Matti, her solid rock in the stormy seas: Guess what? We’re getting married!

Suddenly, an earthquake is slow-rolling through her personal life as well.

She waited too long: to tell Matti how she feels, to quit the unwinnable race to net zero, to grab hold of the things that make life worth living, not just trying to stay afloat. When the governor reveals an impossible technology that could save the planet, but it’s in the hands of a murderously ambitious man, it’s a catastrophe she can’t turn away from. And it’s almost enough to distract her from everything falling apart. Work first, always.

And maybe that’s been the problem all along.

Yet You Cry When It Hurts is the fourth of four tightly-connected hopepunk novels in a near-future climate-fiction series. It’s about our future, how the forces of greed are ever-present, how the fight for a just world never ends, and how it’s not strongmen who will save us but the bright cords of connection that hold the world together.

If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Nothing is Promised.

My thoughts about the Nothing is Promised series ~~ 

This is such an amazing series, so timely with the energy and climate crises we are living in right now. Then throw in a bit of a pandemic and this could be our world. 

I've read a lot of Susan's stories and have loved them all. Most of them are not my usual genres but her storytelling is amazing and I find myself totally drawn into the worlds she creates. The Nothing is Promised series is another example of her extraordinary talent. 

I haven't read Yet You Cry When It Hurts.... yet! But it is definitely on my reading list and I will be getting to it soon. I've read the first 3 books in this series and loved them all. I have all of my thoughts about each book linked below. Check them out and then start this series yourself. 

I love that Susan creates worlds that take me out of my comfort zone, educating me to a whole new world. I highly recommend this series!

When You Had Power

You Knew the Price

Of Kindness and Kilowatts

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Look at these covers together. Aren't they amazing?

Find the whole series on Amazon

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About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from young adult science fiction to adult future-noir, with side trips into steampunk and middle grade fantasy. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

She writes full-time from Chicago, inventing mind powers and dreaming of the Singularity.

Chat with her about our coming robot overlords on Facebook.

Find all of Susan's books on Amazon

Click here for a FREE story!

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Release Day! Of Kindness and Kilowatts by Susan Kaye Quinn ~ My Thoughts #OfKindnessAndKilowatts

 

Congrats Susan

on the release today of

Of Kindness and Kilowatts!

Of Kindness and Kilowatts by Susan Kaye Quinn

(Nothing is Promised #3)

Technothriller, 108 pages

Published April 15, 2021 by Twisted Space LLC

Humanity is trapped in a loop.

As the world heats, it takes more energy to keep humanity from dying—a feedback loop that makes net-zero carbon increasingly impossible to reach.

Akemi’s job on the Public Utilities Commission has its own daily disasters—making sure the infrastructure of civilization keeps running is the most thankless job on the planet. When a double event hits—heatwave plus viral breakout—keeping the power on is an all-out battle. It doesn’t help that he’s distracted by his elderly father, who was struck down and neuro-compromised by the same virus that killed his mother the year before. Now his father is living in Akemi’s attic. They’d never had a relationship before, and that was a fair description of the state of things now.

Then an old friend’s daughter shows up with a mystery of physics… and a tale of stolen kilowatts and deadly intrigue. He would dismiss it outright, except she’s also the Regional Director of the power grid. Something isn’t right, and the Governor won’t accept excuses when the power goes out.

Sometimes, you’re the right person in the right place, whether you want to be or not.

Of Kindness and Kilowatts is the third of four tightly-connected novels in a new hopepunk series. It’s about our future, how the world is always more complicated than it seems, and how just when it seems like things couldn’t possibly get worse, they invariably do… and that’s when we discover kindness and quantum entanglement are what hold everything together.

Find the whole series on Amazon

My thoughts about Of Kindness and Kilowatts ~~ 

This is such an amazing series, so timely with the energy and climate crises we are living in right now. Then throw in a bit of a pandemic and this could be our world. 

This book focuses on Akemi, as we watch him try to get to the bottom of some evil goings on while also trying to do his job of protecting the people against a heatwave and a virus. We also get a look at his personal life, which I enjoyed. 

The middle of the book got a little bit heavy for me, as I didn't understand most of the engineering lingo but for you engineers out there, I'm sure you're going to love it. I totally loved the rest of the book. 

Like I've said before, I love that Susan creates worlds that take me out of my comfort zone, educating me to a whole new world. I highly recommend this series! Give it a try!

Book #4, Yet You Cry When It Hurts 

comes out on June 17, 2021.

Look at these covers together. Aren't they amazing?

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Read my thoughts about Book #1 here.

Read my thoughts about Book #2 here.

About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from young adult science fiction to adult future-noir, with side trips into steampunk and middle grade fantasy. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

She writes full-time from Chicago, inventing mind powers and dreaming of the Singularity.

Chat with her about our coming robot overlords on Facebook.

Find all of Susan's books on Amazon

Click here for a FREE story!

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Release Day! You Knew the Price by Susan Kaye Quinn ~ My Thoughts #YouKnewThePrice

Congrats Susan

on the release today of

You Knew the Price!

You Knew the Price by Susan Kaye Quinn

(Nothing is Promised #2)

ebook,  137 pages

Published February 18, 2021 by Twisted Space LLC

The choice you make is the future you create.

Climate-driven plagues haunt humanity, and it’s Regional Director Zuri Hill-Gray’s job to keep the clean-energy grid running.

Zuri has the perfect life—a beautiful home on the Hillstead, a loving family, and a powerful job keeping the LA Basin’s grid humming. If only she didn’t see the ghost of her dead twin in the mirror. Her grief-counselor husband understands too much, her Aunties Cora and Vivian smother her to excess, and her mother can’t look at her daughter without seeing the half that’s missing. Zuri can’t begin to face her sister’s little daughter—to Ruby, Zuri is the ghost.

Which is why she’s running away to work, again, on the anniversary of her sister’s death.

Then a power engineer walks into Zuri’s office and claims someone is stealing energy from Power Island One—and they’ve tried to kill her to cover it up. The more Zuri digs, the more it’s clear someone’s been tinkering in the shut-down fusion labs. They’re going to dangerous lengths to hide it, and it’s been happening right under her nose. Which is how Regional Directors lose their jobs.

Zuri’s already lost her better half—she can’t afford to lose this, too.

You Knew the Price is the second of four tightly-connected novels in a new hopepunk series. It’s about our future, how society lives on invisible things, like electricity and trust, that are far too easy to break… and how our most difficult moments are often when we discover the only path forward is healing not just ourselves but the world.

Find the whole series on Amazon

My thoughts about You Knew the Price ~~ 

I love this series! I have to admit that book #1, while it was amazing, sort of left me confused, what with all the engineering references. The engineering world is just not something I'm very familiar with. I loved the characters though and they pulled me into the story. 

Well, let me tell you, book #2 blew the story open for me! I don't know if it's because of what the Midwest is going through right now with the power outages and the rolling power grids., but I get it now. 

This installment features a different character, Zuri, and I loved learning her backstory and discovering her badass character underneath it all. I can't wait to see what she does in book 3. 

Susan Kaye Quinn has done it again. She has created a world that took me out of my comfort zone, educating me to a whole new world. I highly recommend this series! Give it a try!

Book #3, Of Kindness and Kilowatts, comes out on April 15, 2021. 

Read my thoughts about Book #1 here.

About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from young adult science fiction to adult future-noir, with side trips into steampunk and middle grade fantasy. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

She writes full-time from Chicago, inventing mind powers and dreaming of the Singularity.

Chat with her about our coming robot overlords on Facebook.

Find all of Susan's books on Amazon

Click here for a FREE story!

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

When You Had Power by Susan Kaye Quinn ~ My Thoughts #WhenYouHadPower

When You Had Power

When You Had Power by Susan Kaye Quinn

(Nothing is Promised #1)

ebook,  215 pages

Published November 24 by Twisted Space LLC

For better, for worse. In sickness and in health.

It’s a legal vow of care for families in 2050, a world beset by waves of climate-driven plagues.

Power engineer Lucía Ramirez long ago lost her family to one—she’d give anything to take that vow. The Power Islands give humanity a fighting chance, but tending kelp farms and solar lilies is a lonely job. The housing AI found her a family match, saying she should fit right in with the Senegalese retraining expert who’s a force of nature, the ex-Pandemic Corps cook with his own cozy channel, and even the writer who insists everything is stories, all the way down. This family of literal and metaphorical refugees could be the shelter she’s seeking from her own personal storm.

She needs this one to work.

Then an unscheduled power outage and a missing turtle-bot crack open a mystery. Something isn’t right on Power Island One, but every step she takes to solve it, someone else gets there first—and they’re determined to make her unsee what she’s seen. Lucía is an engineer, not a detective, but fixing this problem might cost her the one thing she truly needs: a home.

When You Had Power is the first of four tightly-connected novels in a new hopepunk series. It’s about our future, how society will shift and flex like a solar lily in the storms of our own making, and how breaks in the social fabric have to be expected, tended to, and healed. Because we’re in this together, now more than ever before. 

My thoughts about When You Had Power ~~ 

I love it when Susan Kaye Quinn branches off in her writing and swerves in a different direction. I know that whatever path she takes is going to mean a great adventure for me. When You Had Power, book #1 in her new Nothing is Promised series did not disappoint.

Lucia is a strong, capable women who has a very important job to do, but she also wants the love and security that family brings. When she notices problems in her new world, how does she know who she can trust?   

I immediately felt at home in this futurist world, set in 2050, and comfortable with the characters that quickly become a big part of Lucia's world. Susan does an excellent job creating a believable, exciting world that I can't even imagine on my own. I loved the first book in this amazing new series and can't wait for the rest of the stories! 

Book #2, You Knew the Price, comes out on January 19, 2021. 

About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from young adult science fiction to adult future-noir, with side trips into steampunk and middle grade fantasy. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

She writes full-time from Chicago, inventing mind powers and dreaming of the Singularity.

Chat with her about our coming robot overlords on Facebook.

Find all of Susan's books on Amazon

Click here for a FREE story!

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!