Such exciting news! The Table of Contents for Cranky Ladies of History, due to be published by FableCroft next year, has just been officially announced and it is a corker. I am so pleased and proud to have my story, “Mary Mary” — about author, critic, philosopher, and pre-feminist Mary Wollstonescraft — included in the anthology. It’s a very different story to what I’ve written in the past and I suspect I shall pen a brief blog post about it, and about Mary, at some stage in the non-too-distant future, but for now, let’s all just bask in the glow of all these wonderfully cranky ladies of times past:
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| Author | Provisional Title | Cranky Lady | A little detail… |
| Joyce Chng | “Charmed Life” | Leizu | Chinese empress who discovered silk |
| Amanda Pillar | “Neter Nefer” | Hatshepsut | Egyptian ruler |
| Barbara Robson | “Theodora” | Theodora, wife of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian the first | Wife of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian the first |
| Lisa Hannett | “For So Great a Misdeed” | Hallgerðr Höskuldsdóttir | Icelandic woman |
| Garth Nix | “The Company of Women” | Lady Godiva | Anglo-Saxon noblewoman |
| Juliet Marillier | “Hallowed Ground” | Hildegard of Bingen | German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath |
| LM Myles | “Little Battles” | Eleanor of Aquitaine | French queen & mother of dynasty |
| Foz Meadows | “Bright Moon” | Khutulun | Central Asian warrior |
| Laura Lam | “The lioness and her prey” | Jeanne de Clisson | French pirate |
| Liz Barr | “Queenside” | Mary Tudor (Mary I of England) | Queen of England |
| Deborah Biancotti | “Look How Cold My Hands Are” | Countess Bathory | countess from the renowned Báthory family of nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary. She has been labelled the most prolific female serial killer in history |
| Dirk Flinthart | “The gift of freedom” | Grace O’Malley | Queen of Umaill, chieftain of the Ó Máille clan sometimes known as “The Sea Queen of Connacht” |
| Faith Mudge | “Glorious” | Elizabeth I | Queen of England |
| Havva Murat | “The Pasha, the girl and the dagger: The story of Nora of Kelmendi” | Nora of Kelmendi | Albanian warrior |
| Kirstyn McDermott | “Mary Mary” | Mary Wollstonecroft | English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. |
| Thoraiya Dyer | “Vintana” | Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar, also known as Ranavalona the Cruel | Queen of Madagascar |
| Stephanie Lai | “The dragon, the terror, the sea” | Cheng Shih | Chinese pirate |
| Jane Yolen | SACAGAWEA | SACAGAWEA | Lemhi Shoshone woman, who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition, acting as an interpreter and guide, in their exploration of the Western United States |
| Kaaron Warren | “Another week in the future” | Miss CH Spence | Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician and leading suffragist. |
| Sylvia Kelso | “Due care and attention” | Lilian Cooper | British-born Australian doctor |
| Sandra McDonald | “Cora Crane and The Trouble with Me” | Cora Crane | American businesswoman, nightclub and bordello owner, writer and journalist. |
| Nisi Shawl | “A Beautiful Stream” | Colette | French novelist and performer |
| Liz Argall | “Oodgeroo is Not Yet Your Name” | Oodgeroo Noonuccal | Australian poet, political activist, artist and educator. |
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Kirstyn McDermott 