Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘sff’

John Scalzi has a nice piece up today with encouraging words about persistence in writing… I particularly like this bit:

Who knows what will happen tomorrow.

Will you, as a writer, become like George RR Martin? Probably not. But you might find your own measure of success, so long as you keep showing up.

Automattic Special Projects's avatarWhatever

This last weekend I had an enjoyable time at the Confusion convention, which is no surprise, as I usually do — it’s one of the reasons I’ve gone back to it now for nine years running. I mostly hung out in the bar and talked to writers, doing the usual combination of business talk and complete idiocy, as writers generally do at conventions when they chat with each other.

One evening I talked to a couple of different authors about writing careers and the ups and downs careers have, and how from time to time we’re all filled with frustration with them, especially during a downturn. We all want to be on award lists; we all want to have bestsellers. If those things don’t happen we can wonder if what we’re doing matters much at all. As we were talking about it I came up with a metaphor which I…

View original post 857 more words

Read Full Post »

Ok, not really, but between the two bits of news I have it’s a relatively apt title for this piece.

First, we had a gas leak this morning here at Chez J and now, three tech crews later, we are  no longer at risk of blowing up. Yay.

Second, Knights of Badassdom will be released in February! Apparently it’s not the director’s cut and apparently it won’t get a full theatrical release and that seems ungood, but it will be out. Yay! Knights! Demons! Badassery! And I am certain that there will be explosions!

Also, that just about meets my recommended allowance of exclamation marks for the day. So, all good. Happy weekend, everyone!*

* RDA? check;)

Read Full Post »

Terrific, this award is very well deserved:)

Automattic Special Projects's avatarWhatever

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has named Samuel R. Delany its newest Grand Master. All the details are here.

I’m still doing my “no comments on SFWA for a year” thing, so I won’t discuss this substantively at the moment. I will say this: This is an award both well chosen and well deserved.

View original post

Read Full Post »

I’m very pleased to tell you that I have a new story, Just Like [Illegible] Used to Make, up at Perihelion Science Fiction. It’s now freely available online. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to win the Five Rivers Publishing Wasps at the Speed of Sound contest! It was a great competition and gave me the opportunity to decode the Morse Code message on Derryl Murphy’s Wasps at the Speed of Sound book cover, designed by Art Director, Jeff Minkevics.

It was a lot of fun and (extra yay) means that I also get to enjoy not one, not two, but ten e-books from Five Rivers. The chance to sample such a wide range of books is terrific, and I can’t wait to read them all:) Thanks, Five RIvers!

Read Full Post »

As a followup to my last post on Reading for Generation Mars, I’d like to reference this piece by Becky Chambers at the Tor.com blog. She wrote it after meeting a (real! live!) astronaut and realizing that what she does is important to science and progress too, and not in an abstract way.

The fact is that if space exploration—in whatever form—is going to continue onward, it needs all the support we can muster. We need public outreach, like what the astronaut was doing, to be aware of the work that’s already being done, and to spark the next generation to follow in their footsteps. We need quality education, and a larger emphasis on scientific literacy, both in the classroom and beyond.

And we need science fiction. Now, more than ever.

We need to consider which futures are worth pursuing, which ideas we’ve outgrown, and what dangers (both practical and ethical) could be lurking along the way. Science fiction is the great thought experiment that addresses all of these things, and there is no branch of it that is not hugely relevant today. We need stories based around existing technologies, to help us determine our immediate actions. We need near-future stories that explore where our efforts might lead us in our lifetime. We need stories that take the long view, encouraging us to invest in better futures for distant generations. We need space operas, to remind us to be daring. We need apocalypses, to remind us to be cautious. We need realistic stories, and ridiculous stories, and everything in between, because all of these encourage us to dream (perhaps the ridiculous ones most especially). We need all of it.

I found this to be a really nice summary of so many of the reasons why fiction, and science fiction in particular, is important. Sure, it’s just one element in a matrix of education, outreach and exploration, but it’s in there.

Now I’m going to go write something:)

Read Full Post »

If you or someone you know is between the ages of 13 and 25 and into science fiction, check out the Tomorrow Project’s new competition. Together with the Society for Science & the Public, ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination and the Intel Foundation, they have put together “The Future Powered by Fiction” competition:

… an innovative fiction competition geared at 13- to 25-year-olds worldwide, asking them to contribute science fiction stories, essays, comics and videos to explore the kinds of futures we want to work toward together.

Fun! Prizes! A chance to shape the future! If this sounds good to you, visit the above link for full submission details.

I think this is a terrific idea and only regret that my crazy cool nephew isn’t old enough to get in on the action. Even if you don’t qualify, or you’re a teacher interested in this as the groundwork for classroom activities, the site has some great material for building these kinds of creative projects, including examples of previous winners, themes and tools to get started.

It’s free to enter, is open to entries from anywhere on the planet (sorry, extraterrestrials!) and the deadline is November 14, 2013.

Read Full Post »

It’s time for me to find a new book to read, and what better place to start looking than SFSignal’s delightful visualization of NPR’s Top 100 SFF Books? Sure, the list is a little older, but literature is timeless, people, timeless!

SFSignalNPR100

Read Full Post »

I’m very pleased to announce that “The Scent of Things to Come” is now available online in Nature‘s September 5th issue. The artwork is gorgeous, too.

I have to say this absolutely makes my day:)

Read Full Post »

>> note: this is a repost to get around an editing problem; ignore if you’ve seen it or reread at your leisure…

Over at the Clarion Foundation‘s blog, Gregory Frost shares some terrific advice about the importance of establishing place in writing. I agree that authors need to use their details wisely, but too many people forget the importance of place, and I’m not just saying that because I spent time studying Geography.

Quick, what’s the first question you would ask if you woke up in a strange place?

“Where am I?”

Settle that and you can move on to other issues (like “Why am I perched on a tower fifty stories in the air?” or “Who tied me up and how the hell do I get out of here?”). Without it,  all the conflict in the world can’t keep the story from feeling like it’s taking place in front of a green screen.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »