Editing

Susan Forest is an award-winning editor of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres of fiction, as well as memoir, and she is a member of the Editors Canada.

She can provide:

- Coaching
- Ghost Writing
- Structural Editing
- Stylistic Editing
- Manuscript Review Services

For rates, please contact her through the comments section on her website.

The Dream Rider Saga: The Hollow Boys, The Crystal Key, The Lost Expedition

The Hollow Boys was the winner of the Prix Aurora Award, 2023

Indiana Jones meets Teen Titans, a fast-paced urban fantasy triloger from “one of Canada’s most original writers of speculative fiction” (Library Journal).

Will is the Dream Rider, the superhero who walks in our dreams but never in the streets of his own city. Case is his girlfriend, a survivor of those streets who hears voices warning her of danger. Fader, her brother, is very good at disappearing.

In The Hollow Boys, they defeated a body swapper and a witch to save the world. In The Crystal Key, they battled warring cults to protect an ancient artifact tied to Will’s affliction.

The Chakana. The Crystal Key. But the key to what? To finding answers, they hope, to the questions that rule their lives.

Life Beyond Us

What would life be like if it originated in a frigid ocean beneath an impenetrable shell of ice? Or on a world whose haze obscures any view of the universe beyond? Or on an unfathomable scale in the depths of space?

How would first contact—on earth, in space, on another planet—transform our understandings of technology, philosophy, and what it means to be human? What kind of cognitive dissonance would society experience, if we discovered a previously unrecognized sentience on Earth?

Life–beyond us.

Dive in as the European Astrobiology Institute presents fifty-four original SF Stories and Science Essays on life, from the microbial to the macro, from the automatomic to the sagacious. Each speculative story is followed by a professional essay illuminating the scientific underpinnings of the story and providing a new window onto cutting edge knowledge about the exploration for life in the universe.

SF Stories by Eugen Bacon, Gregory Benford, Renan Bernardo, Jana Bianchi, Tobias S. Buckell, Eric Choi, Julie E. Czerneda, Tessa Fisher, Simone Heller, Valentin D. Ivanov, Mary Robinette Kowal, Lisa Jenny Krieg (translated by Simone Heller), Geoffrey A. Landis, Rich Larson, Liu Yang (translated by Ladon Gao), Lucie Lukačovičová, Premee Mohamed, G. David Nordley, Malka Older, Deji Bryce Olukotun, Tomáš Petrásek, Brian Rappatta, Arula Ratnakar, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Bogi Takács, Peter Watts, and B. Zelkovich.

Science Essays by Jacques Arnould, William Bains, José A. Caballero, Dimitra Demertzi, Martina Dimoska, Tessa Fisher, Dennis Höning, Valentin D. Ivanov, Fabian Klenner, Nina Kopacz, Geoffrey A. Landis, Natuschka Lee, Ania Losiak, Stephen Francis Mann, Connor Martini, Tony Milligan, Philippe Nauny, Julie Nováková, Erik Persson, Tomáš Petrásek, Joanna Piotrowska, Giovanni Poggiali, Amedeo Romagnolo, Stefano Sandrelli, Floris van der Tak, Jan Toman, Sheri Wells-Jensen, and Raymond Wheeler.

Introduction by Stephen Baxter; Foreword by Julie Nováková; Afterwords by Wolf D. Geppert; and Lucas K. Law / Susan Forest; Edited by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law, and Susan Forest.

Seasons Between Us: Tales of Identities and Memories

Nominated for the Prix Aurora Award, 2021

Travel with twenty-three speculative fiction authors through the seasons of life to capture the memories, identities, and moments of stepping through the portal of change, as they cope with their own journeys of growing older.

From the moment of birth, through each threshold of our lives, to the moment we take our last breath, we age.

Some of us leap into a hopeful future, some cling to the knowns of our former selves, some wander obliviously through the minefields and poppies of change. Something is lost, something is gained in each season. Things forgotten, things remembered.

AUTHORS: Maurice Broaddus, Vanessa Cardui, C.J. Cheung, Joyce Chng, Eric Choi, S.B. Divya, Alan Dean Foster, Bev Geddes, Maria Haskins, Tyler Keevil, Rich Larson, Karin Lowachee, Brent Nichols, Heather Osborne, Y.M. Pang, Karina Sumner-Smith, Amanda Sun, Patrick Swenson, Bogi Takács, Hayden Trenholm, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Jane Yolen, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, and Candas Jane Dorsey (Introduction)

Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders

Finalist for the Prix Aurora Award, 2019

Journey with twenty-one speculative fiction authors through the fractured borders of human migration to examine assumptions and catch a glimpse of the dreams, struggles, and triumphs of those who choose—or are forced—to leave home and familiar places. Who straddle borders within our worlds—and within us.

AUTHORS: Elsie Chapman, Kate Heartfield, SL Huang, Tyler Keevil, Matthew Kressel, Rich Larson, Tonya Liburd, Karin Lowachee, Seanan McGuire, Brent Nichols, Julie Novakova, Heather Osborne, Sarah Raughley, Alex Shvartsman, Amanda Sun, Jeremy Szal, Hayden Trenholm, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Christie Yant, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, with an introduction by Eric Choi and Gillian Clinton.

Find The Sum of Us at Amazon US, Barnes & Noble and e-books on Amazon US, Apple iBooks, B&N/Nook and Kobo. Also available at other major online retailers.

The Sum of Us: Tales of the Bonded and Bound

Winner of the Prix Aurora Award, 2018

Twenty-three science fiction and fantasy authors capture the depth and breadth of caring and of giving and delve into the complex world of caregivers. They find insight, joy, devastation, and heroism in grand sweeps and in tiny niches. And, like wasps made of stinging words, there is pain in giving, and in working one’s way through to the light. Our lives and relationships are complex. But in the end, there is hope, and there is love.

AUTHORS: Colleen Anderson, Charlotte Ashley, Brenda Cooper, Ian Creasey, A.M. Dellamonica, Bev Geddes, Claire Humphrey, Sandra Kasturi, Tyler Keevil, Juliet Marillier, Matt Moore, Heather Osborne, Nisi Shawl, Alex Shvartsman, Kate Story, Karina Sumner-Smith, Amanda Sun, Hayden Trenholm, James Van Pelt, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Edward Willett, Christie Yant, and Caroline M. Joachim, with an introduction by Domink Parisian.

Print version at Indigo Chapters, McNally Robinson, Amazon Canada, Amazon US, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Amazon UK, Angus Robertson
Digital version at Indigo Chapters, Kobo, iBooks, Nook

“This is overall a strong collection . . . make it worth reading.” — Publishers Weekly

Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts

Winner of the Prix Aurora Award and Book Publishers of Alberta Award, 2017

Nineteen science fiction and fantasy authors tackle the division between mental health and mental illness; how the interplay between our minds’ quirks and the diverse societies and cultures we live in can set us apart, or must be concealed, or become unlikely strengths.

AUTHORS: Kelley Armstrong, Suzanne Church, A.M. Dellamonica, Gemma Files, James Alan Gardner, Bev Geddes, Erika Holt, Tyler Keevil, Rich Larson, Derwin Mak, Mahtab Narsimhan, Sherry Peters, Ursula Pflug, Robert Runté, Lorina Stephens, Amanda Sun, Hayden Trenholm, Edward Willett and A.C. Wise, with an introduction by Julie Czerneda.

Print version at Indigo Chapters, McNally Robinson, Amazon Canada, Amazon US, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Amazon UK, Angus Robertson
Digital version at Indigo Chapters, Kobo, iBooks, Nook

“Strangers Among Us…is important, shining a much-needed spotlight on issues that get far too little attention. A wonderful anthology, one of the major SF&F books of the year. Bravo!”

— Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo award-winning author of Quantum Night

Starborn (2018), by Terry Atwood

Many live their entire existence without encountering a character-defining moment, that point when one must make a life-altering decision and live with the consequences.

Available through iUniverse.

The Trillionist (2013) by Sagan Jeffries

Spurred on by a darkness residing within his brilliant mind, Sage Rogan, boy-genius and inventor, is relentlessly driven to bring modern advancements to his people. In fearing for his own sanity, he eventually discovers a part of his mind is, in fact, a shadowy ancient spirit with ulterior motives of its own. Realizing that the inventions he’s been coerced into creating could destroy his world, Sage yearns to make things right; clashing with the powerful entity to save his world from annihilation.

Available through Edge Press.

“Audacious, even unique, The Trillionist delivers a grand, sweeping explanation of life, the universe and everything.” – Matt Hughes

Technicolor Ultramall (2011), by Ryan Oakley

Finalist for the Prix Aurora Award, 2012

The world’s ecosystems have been destroyed by genetic pollution and cities have evolved into mega malls. Budgie is a knife wielding, brass knuckled young man from the impoverished and brutal red section of Toronto’s T-Dot Center. When his best friend is murdered and Budgie falls in love with the woman responsible, he learns that there’s more to life than drugs, blood or money. To escape his past he must give up everything and everyone he knows and sell his perceptions to an enigmatic and dangerous gang leader. Fighting for survival and unwittingly involved in a scheme that only he can stop, Budgie must ask himself: Does he want to? Technicolor Ultra Mall is an ultra-violent science fiction dystopic novel about the value of being human in a completely commodified world.