Who Are The Best Sci Fi Authors Female In 2023?

Every time a scene in 'Naruto' flashes someone into the background and I grin, I start plotting how that would play out against real-world surveillance. Imagining a ‘camouflage no jutsu’ as pure light-bending works great on screen, but modern surveillance is a buffet of sensors — visible-light CCTV, infrared thermals, radar, LIDAR, acoustic arrays, and AI that notices patterns. If the technique only alters the visible appearance to match the background, it might fool an old analog camera or a distracted passerby, but a thermal camera would still see body heat. A smart system fusing multiple sensors can flag anomalies fast. That said, if we translate the jutsu into a mix of technologies — adaptive skin materials to redirect visible light, thermal masking to dump heat signature, radio-absorbent layers for radar, and motion-dampening for sound — you could achieve situational success. The catch is complexity and limits: active camouflage usually works best against one or two bands at a time and requires power, sensors, and latency-free responses. Also, modern AI doesn't just look at a face; it tracks gait, contextual movement, and continuity across cameras. So a solo, instant vanish trick is unlikely to be a universal solution. I love the fantasy of it, but in real life you'd be designing a very expensive, multi-layered stealth system — still, it’s fun to daydream about throwing together a tactical cloak and pulling off a god-tier cosplay heist. I’d definitely try building a prototype for a con or a short film, just to see heads turn.

I get a kick out of tracing the threads between classic erotica and the modern femdom romance scene, so here's my take from a more bookish, long-haul-reader perspective. If you want authors who consistently show up in discussions and lists, start with Laura Antoniou — her 'The Marketplace' series is practically canonical for consensual power-exchange worlds where female masters and mistresses are central figures. It’s layered, character-driven, and treats the dynamics with a calm seriousness that appeals to people looking for romance plus psychological depth. Another essential name is Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure; the 'Sleeping Beauty' trilogy is infamous and influential for blending fairy-tale retelling with explicit BDSM themes. It’s controversial and not for everyone, but it shaped how erotic fantasy and dominance were pictured in later decades. Tiffany Reisz’s 'The Original Sinners' books also deserve mention — they’re edgier romance with dominant women who have complex interior lives and real romantic stakes, so readers who want emotional payoff alongside kink often find her work satisfying. If you’re hunting for more contemporary or anthology-style takes, look for editors and curators who focus on erotica and kink: anthologies and collections often surface excellent femdom stories from a variety of voices. Tristan Taormino is one figure who has curated and written around sexual expression and kink in thoughtful ways. For a classic counterpoint, Pauline Réage’s 'Story of O' is historically pivotal even though it centers on submission rather than femdom — it’s useful to read as context for how power and eroticism have been framed over time. Finally, the indie world is huge: many modern femdom romances live on digital platforms and indie imprints, so scanning tags like 'female domination', reading reader reviews, and checking content warnings helps you find consensual, romance-forward work. Personally I love when a book balances tenderness and power — the best femdom romance makes dominance feel like a language two characters learn together, and that’s what keeps me coming back.

One blunt truth I keep coming back to is that consent has to be visible on the page even when a character is asleep. I write intimacy scenes a lot, and the moments that sit uneasily with me are the ones where sleep is used as a shortcut to avoid messy negotiation. If you're going to depict any sexual or intimate action involving a sleeping adult, make the setup explicit: was there prior, enthusiastic consent? Was this part of a negotiated fantasy, a sleepover agreement, or some kind of mutual understanding? If the parties agreed ahead of time that certain touches or waking rituals were fine, show that conversation or at least the residue of it—messages, a joke, a shared nod—so readers know everyone involved had agency. If the scene explores a boundary being crossed, treat it like a boundary being crossed: give it weight, complexity, and consequence. I focus on the emotional fallout, the internal dissonance of the awake character, and the survivor-centered aftermath for the one who was asleep. That means no glamorizing, no voyeuristic detail, and no brushing trauma under the rug. Practical things help make it respectful: use restrained, non-exploitative language, avoid graphic descriptions of unconscious bodies, and include a content warning if the material could distress readers. I also find sensitivity readers invaluable for scenes that touch on consent, power imbalances, or past abuse. Handling sleep scenes responsibly has made my writing feel more honest and kinder to readers and characters alike.

I get a real kick out of turning my selfies into cute, stylized female characters, and the tools these days are wild. For a quick, playful transformation I often reach for ToonMe and ToonApp — they're user-friendly, give that smooth cartoon shading and big-eyes look, and have presets aimed specifically at female faces. Voila AI Artist is another fave when I want the Pixar-esque or caricature vibe; it does that round-eyed 3D look really well. Lensa's Magic Avatars made headlines for a reason: polished, flattering results, but watch the cost and the prompt quirks. If you prefer anime-styled portraits, try 'Waifu Labs', 'Selfie2Anime', or apps that explicitly offer anime filters — they lean toward youthful, stylized proportions. For more control, I use web-based Stable Diffusion frontends or apps that let you run models like 'NovelAI' or custom anime checkpoints; that requires a bit more tinkering but you can push toward a specific character vibe. Pro tip: good lighting and a neutral expression in the selfie give the cleanest cartoon conversion. I usually touch up colors afterwards in a simple editor to match the mood I'm going for, and I love comparing results from different apps before I pick a final image.

I get asked this all the time, especially by friends who want to put a cute female cartoon on merch or use it in a poster for their small shop. The short reality: a cartoon female character photo is not automatically free for commercial use just because it looks like a simple drawing or a PNG on the internet. Characters—whether stylized or photoreal—are protected by copyright from the moment they are created, and many are also subject to trademark or brand restrictions if they're part of an established franchise like 'Sailor Moon' or a company-owned mascot. That protection covers the artwork and often the character design itself. If you want to use one commercially, check the license closely. Look for explicit permissions (Creative Commons types, a commercial-use stock license, or a written release from the artist). Buying a license or commissioning an original piece from an artist is the cleanest route. If something is labeled CC0 or public domain, that’s safer, but double-check provenance. For fan art or derivative work, you still need permission for commercial uses. I usually keep a screenshot of the license and the payment record—little things like that save headaches later, which I always appreciate.

I'm obsessed with getting cartoon art to pop off the page, so removing a background is one of my favorite little makeovers. For a precise, nondestructive workflow I usually open the file in 'Photoshop' (but Photopea or GIMP work similarly). First I duplicate the layer, then use 'Select Subject' or the Magic Wand to grab the character—cartoons often have solid fills and clean outlines, so that selection is surprisingly accurate. I switch to 'Select and Mask' to refine edges: increase contrast slightly, smooth a bit, and use the edge-detection brush on hair or stray lines. Always output to a layer mask rather than deleting pixels; that way I can paint the mask back if I overshoot. Next I tidy the outlines. If the character has a bold black stroke, I sometimes expand the selection by 1–2 pixels to avoid haloing, or use 'Defringe' to remove color spill. For soft shadows, I duplicate the layer, fill the mask with black, blur and lower opacity to create a realistic shadow layer. Export as PNG (or PSD if I want to keep layers). If you prefer free tools, Photopea mimics these steps and remove.bg gives great auto results for quick jobs. I love how a clean transparent background lets me drop my cartoon into any scene, and tweaking masks turns a rough cut into something that feels hand-polished—satisfying every time.

If you're hunting for a laugh-out-loud spin on 'Dune' or a silly retelling of 'The Time Machine', my go-to starting point is Archive of Our Own. AO3's tag system is a dream for digging up comedy: search 'humor', 'parody', 'crack', or toss in 'crossover' with something intentionally absurd (think 'Dune/X-Men' or 'Foundation/Harry Potter' parodies). I personally filter by kudos and bookmarks to find pieces that other readers loved, and then follow authors who consistently write witty takes. Beyond AO3, I poke around Tumblr microfics for one-shot gags and Wattpad for serialized absurd reimaginings—Wattpad often has modern-AU comedic rewrites of classics that lean into meme culture. FanFiction.net still has a huge archive, though its tagging is clunkier; search within category pages for titles like 'Frankenstein' or 'The War of the Worlds' and then scan chapter summaries for words like 'humor' or 'au'. If you like audio, look up fanfiction readings on YouTube or podcasts that spotlight humorous retellings. Reddit communities such as r/fanfiction and r/WritingPrompts regularly spawn clever, comedic takes on canonical works. Personally, I get the biggest kick from short, sharp pieces—drabbles and drabble collections—that turn a grave sci-fi premise into pure silliness, and I love bookmarking authors who can do that again and again.

Scrolling through Kristen's Archives feels like wandering a curated bookshelf where certain names pop up again and again. The authors I see most often are Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Octavia E. Butler, and Margaret Atwood. Those names show up because Kristen seems to favor speculative voices that blend lyrical prose with moral weight — Gaiman's mythic whimsy, Le Guin's anthropological scope, Bradbury's nostalgic futurism, Butler's incisive social probes, and Atwood's razor-sharp dystopias. What I love about that rotation is how it creates a conversation across eras: Bradbury's mid-century visions echo into Atwood's near-future cautionary tales, while Le Guin and Butler bend the form in different directions — one more philosophical, the other more sociological. Kristen gives each author room to breathe, featuring essays, short story picks, and linked interviews. You get context: why 'The Left Hand of Darkness' still matters next to a short piece by Gaiman or a remembrance of Bradbury's small-town Americana turned eerie. Reading that archive, I often find deep dives into themes rather than just surface fandom. There are posts that group authors by topics like ecology, gender, or myth, and the recurring authors fit those themes well. It feels like a safe, intelligent corner of the internet where classic and contemporary speculative writers are treated with equal curiosity. Personally, it makes me want to reread 'Parable of the Sower' and then follow up with some underrated Le Guin essays — satisfying and quietly thrilling.