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Month: April 2015

Good Aliens

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Today’s discussion topic sent in by QSF’er Michael Barnette​: Aliens as “the bad guys from space” like those in many movies of late. Should the aliens always be the bad guys or can they be written – no matter how different they are from humans – as “good guys”? It’s interesting to see how aliens go in cycles of good and bad in SF and SF movies especially, from the invasion paranoia stories like Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the ultra-cute alien in distress like ET. But when a culture and intellect is so different from out own as … Read more

Writing Electronically

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Pencils

Yes, I’m back, after a five-day hiatus to move to our new digs with Mark, my hubby. Angel did a bang-up job with the discussion topics these last five days, and so she’s graciously agreed to continue the tradition with a new Angel Discussion every Friday. WooHoo! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, today’s topic comes from QSFer Anastasia Vitsky: “How has the use of electronic methods for writing changed the trends in sci fi?” I’d expand this to include cloud technology and the ability to write on the fly with your smart phone or tablet. I’m updating a story that … Read more

“Bone Rider” by J. Fally

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Genre: MM Urban Science Fiction Length: Novel   WHEN THE main characters in a novel are a cowboy, a Russian, and an alien, you know it’s going to be awesome. McClane is a highly sophisticated piece of alien bionic technology, called “bone riders”, and is self aware. In order to save himself from what he feels will be his destruction, he crash lands his spaceship on Earth, and invades a truck driver’s body to stay safe. Riley Cooper is on the run from his mob boyfriend–ex boyfriend–and he really didn’t need another complication in his life. But McClane shows up … Read more

You Can’t Judge…Hey, Wait a Minute…

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The old saw about judging a book by its cover isn’t meant in a literal sense, and yet it’s true. We often do judge books by their covers. A cheesy, sloppy, or visually uninformative cover has the potential for turning readers away. A visually uninteresting one can make a book invisible amid a crowd of more eye-catching offerings. Lesbian and gay pulp fiction share a checkered past with genre fiction in that the covers were at one time universally cheesy and sometimes laughable. We’ve come a long way, both in SFF/Paranormal covers and in LGBT covers both romance and not, … Read more

Generational Tech

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Some of us are old enough to remember a time before computers. Some of us are even old enough to recall a time before dishwashers were the norm. What I’m getting at here is how technology becomes a part of the fabric of life and how we react to it when it’s not. My mother resisted getting a dryer for the house for a long time. Why would we need such a thing? We had a laundry line. Now it’s normal for everyone to have them, either in the domicile or the apartment’s laundry room or at the laundromat. They’re … Read more

The Midweek Mingle: QUILTBAG+ Tropes

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It’s no secret that QUILTBAG+ characters in fiction have been widely misrepresented. And it’s no secret that it’s a big issue that needs solving. Personally, I think speculative fiction is the perfect battleground for that fight. In speculative fiction, we craft worlds from the ground up. Worlds, characters, cultures—more than any other genre, sci-fi and fantasy give the writer complete control over every aspect of their fictional playground. Not to mention we have a history of QUILTBAG+ representation to bring to play, and a history of tackling society’s issues in our fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation comes to mind. … Read more

The Big Sleep

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It’s said that humans are the only organism on the planet who are aware of their own deaths. That’s a bit tough to verify, since we can’t ask cetaceans and cephalopods, elephants and other primates if they’re aware that someday they’re going to die. We do know that humans are aware, though, and for writers, it’s always lurking in the backs of our creation processes. When we write LGBT fiction and especially romance based fiction, a lot of us shy away from the subject because many of us grew up during the literary period where the LGBT character always died … Read more

Tropes We Love

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The word trope often sends unpleasant shivers down the backs of speculative fiction fans. We think of overused themes, tired plots, and situations that have been beaten to death with an Andromedan shock club and then beaten some more. But really, a trope is simply a recurring theme or device when we talk about stories, so all themes when we break them down into their component parts are tropes. Science Fiction and Fantasy are full of them and fans will be able to yell out dozens of examples if you name one. We even have our favorites if we stop … Read more

Me, Me Monday!

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Welcome to ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB discussion page for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post, so I can also share it over to our FB page (as opposed to this discussion group). –If you want, send me your book announcement info at … Read more

Announcement: Ein, by Sorcha Black

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Ein

QSF author Sorcha Black has a new Fantasy book out: In love with a girl from school and the man hired to torture her, Einan is sent reeling when she thinks them dead. Destitute, she finds herself responsible for protecting children left uncared for in the wake of the Cedesian War. Poor children are disappearing all over the city. While struggling to keep them safe, Ein accidentally sparks a rebellion. Will love find her again in the chaos, or will she die a martyr? Warning: Dark themes, kink, dubious consent, Stockholm Syndrome, sexual assault. May be disturbing to some readers. … Read more