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Month: April 2015

“Normal” is Queer

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Normal

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette – “Queer is what’s different from the local custom peak, not necessarily preferring a partner of the same sex. “What can you do with a culture where something else is the “queer” trait? How does that compare and contrast with the experiences of homosexual people in contemporary culture? “Frex, in the Northern culture of Torn World, nobody cares if you like to rub bits with a same-sex partner (although they do push procreation for survival reasons), but wanting to keep the *same* partner forever is weird. In Terramagne, the weird pairings are someone … Read more

Announcement: Desert World Allegiances, by Lyn Gala

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Desert World Allegiances

DSPP author and QSFer Lyn Gala has a new sci fi book out (second edition): Livre once offered Planetary Alliance miners and workers a small fortune if they helped terraform the mineral rich planet. People flocked to the world, but then a civil war cut the desert planet off from all resources. Half-terraformed and clinging to the edge of existence, Livre devolved into a world where death was accepted as part of life, water resources were scarce and constantly dwindling, and neighbors tried to help each other hold off the inevitable as the desert fought to take back the few … Read more

Flashbacks: Awesome or Bane of Your Existence?

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Flashbacks

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Tam Ames – “Flashbacks in books. Discuss. (As in memories, not PTSD type flashbacks)”. OK, I’m game. I regularly use flashbacks in my stories. I try not to overuse them, but it’s not uncommon for me to use at least one entire scene as a flashback, usually to illuminate a character. But over-use of them can lead to confusion unless it is handled very carefully. In the novella I’m working on now, I do use them fairly liberally, but in a very structured way. So here are my questions – as a writer, do you … Read more

The Midweek Mingle: The BSB

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“You got your sci-fi in my QUILTBAG+ manifesto!” “You got your QUILTBAG+ manifesto in my sci-fi!” And that, my friends, is the gist of the Midweek Mingle (I promise, this’ll be the only post with an intro like this.). Every Wednesday, I’ll be bringing you posts on bringing in the QUILTBAG+ community, both into your writing and into the sci-fi and fantasy community we all know and love. But enough of that. Let’s get into the meat of this.   For several years now, every time I go to Radcon, I’ve been on panels about gender and sexuality, or building … Read more