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Month: July 2016

Announcement: Sky & Dew, by Holly Heisey

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Sky and Dew

QSFer Holly Heisey has a new non binary fantasy book out: In the Hallows, words are magic, and words can kill. Sky took a vow of silence and left the world above to keep her city’s magic alive. Now, she wanders the Hallows as an acolyte of the Lost Emperor – an unseen legend from another world whose words fuel the magic above. But when her lover breaks their vow of silence and falls deathly ill, Sky must descend to the deepest depths of the Hallows to beg the Lost Emperor’s help. What she finds, though, is a tragedy that … Read more

Worldbuilding Week Day Three: Politics and Culture

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Worldbuilding Week

Welcome to the second annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. Today we’re talking about culture and politics, and Lloyd A. Meeker will be our moderator. Here’s my take: There are really only two over-arching questions for you to answer in your world-building task: 1) How is it different from the familiar world? 2) How is it similar to the familiar world? Very often a … Read more

Queer Sci Fi Featured on the Pop Queer-ies Podcast

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Pop Queer-ies

Hey all, We’re excited that QSF was featured on the new Pop Queer-ies podcast – Angel, Ben and I talking about diversity in speculative fiction. The audio’s a little grainy, but it’s a great interview. Take a listen here: https://soundcloud.com/user-3501191/episode-3-part-2-interview-with-queer-sci-fi See the whole Pop Queer-ies site here

Announcement: Best in Show, by Kelly Jensen

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Best in Show

QSFer Kelly Jensen has an adorable new MM paranormal book out: Solitary mystery writer Julian Wilkes doesn’t want a pet, but his sister persuades him to visit Lingwood Animal Rescue, where he is immediately taken with a large ginger tabby cat. Before he can settle into the joys of cat ownership, however, he discovers something very unusual about his new companion. Macavity Birch is cursed. By day he is a large tabby cat. At night he can be himself—a human male with ginger hair and oddly yellow eyes. He didn’t mean to end up in the animal rescue, but he never meant … Read more

Worldbuilding Week Day Two: Alien/Magical Races

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Worldbuilding Week

Welcome to the second annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. Today we’re talking about alien/magical races, and J. Scott Coatsworth will be our moderator. Here’s my take: This is one of my favorite topics of the week, because I love authors who are able to construct entire races of beings in an original and convincing way. When I was in second or third grade … Read more

Wonder Woman!

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Wonder Woman

Warner Bros. debuted the first trailer for “Wonder Woman” at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. “Wonder Woman” gives the superheroine’s origin story as Princess Diana of Themyscira starting from the World War I era. Gal Gadot, who first appeared as Wonder Woman in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” fights alongside Chris Pine who plays Steve Trevor. Patty Jenkins directs the reboot. The trailer shows Diana meeting Steve Trevor, the first man she has ever met, on a beach. She enters the changing tide of World War I and more classic moments are given an updated twist. The superheroine prepares … Read more

Dispatches from Hogwarts G.S.A.: When is queer tragedy cliché?

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Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

We were recently drawn into pondering this question while reading Kai Ashante Wilson’s The Sorcerer of Wildeeps and looking at the book’s Goodreads reviews. One review stood out because it gushed about the book, but the reader said the tragic ending kept her from giving it five stars because (paraphrased) hasn’t gay tragedy been done enough already? Spoilers: One interpretation is that the main character Demane’s love interest dies at the end, though our take was the story left a sliver of hope he could have survived. Reviews of course are subjective, every reader is entitled to her opinion, and … Read more

Interview: Jordan Castillo Price, M/M Urban Fantasy and Horror

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Hello, this is B. A. Brock from Queer Sci Fi, and I have the pleasure of interviewing Jordan Castillo Price today on our blog. I’m a huge fan of hers, and have read quite a bit of her work, so when Scott mentioned that JCP would be up for an interview, I did the fanboy Muppet flail. Let’s dig right in! BA: What I love about your works, is how you can use modern language, familiar to the reader, and yet still create these fantastic science fiction worlds. What do you like about working in the urban scifi genre? What … Read more

Announcement: The Starving Years audiobook, by Jordan Castillo Price

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The Starving Years

QSFer Jordan Castillo Price has a new MMM sci fi romance audiobook release: The chemistry between these three men is undeniable, but is it enough to save Manhattan? Imagine a world without hunger. In 1960, a superfood was invented that made starvation a thing of the past. Manna, the cheaply manufactured staple food, is now as ubiquitous as salt in the world’s cupboards, pantries and larders. Nelson Oliver knows plenty about manna. He’s a food scientist—according to his diploma, that is. Lately, he’s been running the register at the local video rental dive to scrape together the cash for his … Read more

Worldbuilding Week Day One: Languages

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Worldbuilding Week

Welcome to the second annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. Today we’re talking about languages, and Loren Rhoads will be our moderator. Here’s Loren’s take: One of the things I love about the Star Wars universe is the diversity of species in the background characters. Unfortunately, beyond Chewbacca, Admiral Ackbar, and Nien Nunb, few aliens who are good guys speak. When I wrote my … Read more