Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged #FreeFiction, entertainment, Fiction, free, futurists, genre fiction, science fiction, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, writing on March 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »
The goal of the Tomorrow Project is to use science fiction to “spark conversations about the future.” This international project taps ideas from today’s emerging technologies, including synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and 3D printing, and spins out possible impacts on future society.
The good news is that it’s not all killer AIs and artificial plagues:) As they so succinctly put it,
Science fiction is a way to think about how we want the future to be.
Anthology Titles:
Enjoy, fellow futurists!
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Writing, tagged #FreeFiction, Ann Leckie, awesome, David D. Levine, entertainment, Fiction, free, genre fiction, John W. Campbell Award, Nebula Awards, science fiction, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, Tor.com, writing on March 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Today we have a double dose of free fiction! The first comes from David D. Levine at Tor.com:
“Damage” is a tale of desperate times, desperate measures, and the inner life of a fighter spacecraft.
This thoughtful short story of a ship and its master has been nominated for the 2015 Nebula Awards. (If you liked Ann Leckie’s Ancillary trilogy I imagine this could appeal to you as well.) For more on the stories selected for this year’s Nebulas, including select links to full-text versions, check out the complete list of nominees.
The second dose is more like a raging river. Up and Coming is a collection of works by authors eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016, and is now available for free download. That’s over a million words of fiction!
The anthology is free free free but only until March 31. Get it while it’s available and enjoy:)
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged #ThingsILike, arts, awesome, creativity, entertainment, free, libraries, Pennsylvania, yay on February 12, 2016| 1 Comment »
What’s this, what’s this? Libraries that will let you check out musical instruments plus have a librarian trained to help patrons with the tricky bits? That’s something I like.
Pennsylvania Libraries Will Let You Check Out a Ukulele
There’s a strange sound emerging from some Pennsylvania libraries. It’s not the sound of pages turning or scanners scanning—it’s the distinctive dainty, nimble strum that comes from a ukulele.
Even in the age of the internet libraries are incredible resources, and this just adds to the awesome. Not that I play ukelele, but that’s kind of the point. Libraries let you sample a wide variety of knowledge, experience, and perspectives. Yesterday a Moroccan cookbook, today space opera, tomorrow ukelele:)
How great is that?
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Writing, tagged #LadyAdventurers, #ThingsILike, Beryl Markham, books, Ernest Hemingway, literature, nonfiction, travel, Writers, writing on February 5, 2016| 2 Comments »
Today’s #ThingILike* is West with the Night, a fabulous piece of non-fiction first published in 1942 by bush pilot, adventurer and racehorse trainer Beryl Markham. I picked it up in a second-hand store on the strength of the title and the back cover blurb. I’d never heard of the author, but when Ernest Hemingway says he wishes he could write so well, I pay attention. Glad I did.
“Did you read Beryl Markham’s book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer’s log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people’s stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book.”
— Ernest Hemingway
Recommended.
* Again, items in this series of Things I Like are linked for your information; no sponsors, no kickbacks, just a sampling of things that I find useful or fun or funny or sweet.
J.R. Johnson 
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