A 4000-word short story I’ve written, Sealed with a Loving Kiss, is being released in an anthology. It was based on a prompt from a class of schoolchildren in Birmingham who asked for a ‘romance story about a meteorite hitting a snowman’ after doing my Science fiction writing workshop, where we created short stories based on science topics in the news. They chose the ‘space snowman’ asteroid Ultima Thule for inspiration.
The cover design is based around my story:
Cover design by Riya Chowdhury
My story was inspired by Hidden Figures, and features a queer love story, science, secret treasure – and, of course, lots of woman in STEM. I had fun writing it – and wrestling the class prompt into something a bit more ‘Lauren James’.
The anthology also features writing by Bali Rai, Liam Brown and Ken Preston, as well as stories chosen or commissioned by young people in Norway, Portugal and Italy which have been translated into English for inclusion in this book of short stories. It was published by The Emma Press, and created by Writing West Midlands and READ ON EU.
You can order a copy for £3, or my Patreon subscribers can read it early here.
Wren James is the award-winning British author of eleven science fiction & fantasy novels, including The Quiet at the End of the World and The Next Together (previously published as Lauren James). Their books have sold over 200,000 copies in ten languages, and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was optioned for film by Amazon MGM.
Wren is a story consultant on Netflix’s Heartstopper, which was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Also a RLF Royal Fellow, Wren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League and member of the Society of Authors’ Sustainability steering Committee. They work as a consultant on climate storytelling with a focus on providing optimism and hope.
They have won the Sustainable Story Award and been shortlisted for the YA Book Prize, Carnegie Medal and STEAM Book Award.
Wren’s writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly.
Their latest titles are Last Seen Online, a crime thriller set in the world of fandom, and The Victors, a cosy fantasy graphic novel illustrated by Beth Fuller.
Wren was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, where they studied Chemistry and Physics. They run a Queer Writers group in Coventry. Follow them on Instagram & TikTok at @wrenjameswriter or find out more at wrenjames.co.uk.
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