L.R. Lam
Writing Coach
El, or L.R. Lam, is the Sunday Times bestselling, award-winning author of nine novels, with three more under contract. Their books include the epic fantasy romance Dragonfall, the beginning of the Dragon Scales trilogy, cyberpunk near-future thrillers, space opera novels and a near-future thriller.
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El, or L.R. Lam, is the Sunday Times bestselling, award-winning author of nine novels, with three more under contract. Their books include the epic fantasy romance Dragonfall, the beginning of the Dragon Scales trilogy, the Micah Grey trilogy (Pantomime, Shadowplay, Masquerade), cyberpunk near-future thrillers False Hearts and Shattered Minds, space operas Seven Devils and Seven Mercies, co-written with Elizabeth May, and near-future thriller, Goldilocks.
They also come from an academic background, having studied English and creative writing at undergraduate (California State University East Bay) and postgraduate level (University of Aberdeen) before lecturing for seven years on the Creative Writing MA at Edinburgh Napier University.
Over the years, El has worked with most of the big SFF publishers across both sides of the pond: DAW, Hodderscape, Wildfire, Orbit, Tor, and Angry Robot. Their work has been praised by authors such as Robin Hobb, Leigh Bardugo, Andrea Stewart, and Samantha Shannon.
El’s work runs the gamut of speculative fiction and takes them from researching cutting-edge science to write books set a blink from now, to crafting fantasy secondary worlds and dreaming up elaborate history, languages, and societies. Their work aims to make the Other familiar, straddles boundaries, and breaks binaries. Many of their protagonists are queer and trans, and Pantomime was the first young adult novel in any genre to have an intersex protagonist. Their work often focuses on themes of identity, bodily autonomy, and the corruption of power. El also writes queer romance as Laura Ambrose.
When not writing, El reads, lifts weights inconsistently, and is regularly distracted by their cats. El would be an ideal coach for writers playing in most science fiction and fantasy subgenres. One of their favourite parts of mentoring is when they see someone’s eyes light up as they realise exactly how to fix a particular problem and are creatively re-vitalised and ready to continue tackling their story.
If you’re seeking a writing coach to help you tackle the challenges of your exciting speculative fiction ideas, El is the coach for you.
Science fiction and fantasy can be escapist and entertaining but also deeply subversive: warnings us of future danger, or helping us imagine a world freed of certain constraints.