About this ebook
About the author
Maggie Leroy is a speculative fiction author and world-building consultant with over fifteen years of experience in the science fiction and fantasy publishing industry. She is the author of the acclaimed *Heliosphere Trilogy*, which won the Philip K. Dick Award for its first volume and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series. Her short fiction has appeared in *Clarkesworld*, *Asimov's Science Fiction*, *Lightspeed*, and multiple Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies.
Beyond her own writing, Leroy has worked as a developmental editor for major publishing houses, specializing in science fiction and fantasy manuscripts, where she has helped dozens of debut authors strengthen their fictional worlds before publication. She has served as a guest lecturer on world-building theory at the Clarion West Writers Workshop, the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing program.
Leroy's approach to world-building is grounded in the principle that fictional universes must serve story first and spectacle second. She advocates for what she calls "architectural world-building"—a systematic methodology that treats fictional worlds as designed systems with internal logic, structural integrity, and narrative purpose. Her workshops and online courses have reached over fifty thousand writers across more than sixty countries.
A former aerospace engineer with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Leroy brings a background in systems thinking to her creative work. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she is at work on a new science fiction series set in a generation ship colony whose inhabitants have forgotten they are traveling between stars. When not writing or teaching, she volunteers with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, developing educational programs that use science fiction to inspire interest in STEM fields among middle and high school students.
