Cecile Llewelyn-Bowen

Cecile has always had a passion for stories about charismatic, albeit messy, women, and as a filmmaker she has produced, written and directed several biopics about figures such as Emma Hamilton and Vivien Leigh, as well as an animated short for the Blackpool Illuminations about a statue come to life. Her short story, The Bell - a dark, femme-centric retelling of the Welsh myth Cantre’r Gwaelod - was published in the BFS Horizon’s magazine. 

Cecile’s heritage boasts of both Captain Morgan (of the rum) and buccaneer John Bowen, and her love of sea-borne adventure began as a child in the smugglers’ coves of Port Isaac, sculpting busty mermaids out of sand and hunting for long-lost treasure.

Daughters of Silk & Steel takes inspiration from the sprawling nautical world of the Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb, the sapphic psuedo-Elizabethan politics of The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and the high-octane whimsy of Frances White’s Voyage of the Damned. The Venus itself is based upon The Golden Hinde, with a spatter of garish paint and a dash of magic, and beautiful Cass and her loyal crew is in part influenced by Cecile extended family, all of whom would almost certainly know what to do with a cutlass. 

Daughters of Silk & Steel will be on submission in Spring 2026.