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Shining a Light on Prejudice

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Today’s topic is from QSF’er Tracy Rowan: “Off the top of my head: How do you think about the role of gender and orientation in the future or in fantasy worlds? If you posit a distant future or a fantasy world with the same prejudices as exist in our world, why? If you don’t, why?” Of course, the easy answer is “because I’m the writer and I said so.” But that masks a more complex one. What’s different about a society that accepts its LGBT population, vs. one that doesn’t? We’ve come to a point where we generally have widespread … Read more

Flipping History

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer John Allenson: “A suggestion for a discussion. What do people think of Alternate History? Anyone writing AH? What would be some good possibilities for Queer AH?” Ooh, I like this one. What if things had gone differently in the middle ages and we’d had an openly gay Pope who had steered the Church to be gay friendly? How would things have been different if the Nazis had singled out Christians, or whites, or straights instead of Jews and gays for the holocaust? What if drag queens hadn’t risen up at Stonewall? So many possibilities. So … Read more

Elves in the Tropics

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OK, so I’m fresh back from an island adventure with our two friends from Italy, so I’m in a tropical frame of mind. Thinking about it, I realize that most “traditional” fantasy takes place in forests and plains and woody places. But what about tropical locales, like Hawaii? Were the famed “menehune” – a short people who were credited as fairies and tricksters in Polynesia, really elves? I’ve read a few stories that touched on tropical locations (Stephen Donaldson’s books come to mind) but very little actually set in such a locale. So my questions to you today – can … Read more

Love Among the Test Tubes

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Today’s topic comes to us from QSFer Sadie Rose Bermingham: “How to tackle love stories in a world where reproduction is a process that takes place entirely in a test tube and babies allocated according to a means test and regardless of orientation or marital status?” It’s a great question. How does the human element fit in when procreation is entirely done by science? I’ve seen a few books that have tackled this topic, most notably in “Ethan of Athos”, where a planet of men reproduces solely via artificial wombs. Such technology in our current society, if evenly applied to … Read more

Announcement: Murdersphere Mosaic & Blue Collar Immortal by Hank Cannon

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Alright, my first “Me Me Me Monday” post. So, I began a project for Wattpad back in June that was supposed to be fanfiction and it quickly skewed off into a science fiction piece all its own. I titled it Murdersphere Mosaic because it took place in the “confines” of a nested matrioshka or Dyson sphere. Murdersphere Mosaic has turned out to be the pre-alpha sequel to my sci fi novel, Blue Collar Immortal. It did not start that way, but once I got going, a lot of things fell into place, namely that despite starting with the intention to … 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 disccussion page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/qsfdiscussions/members/) 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 … Read more

Writing About the Future

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So when you’re writing about the future, you simply try to work out what people in that future point will be taking for granted. In The Bone Clocks, there are two future sections. 2025 one is only about 11 years away–there’s just a few gizmos about the place and we’re basically there already. In the 2040s, however, more dramatic changes have taken place. There’s no more oil–or very little oil left. So you think about what people at that point will be taking for granted about travel, about the ability to hop on airplane and be hundreds of miles away … Read more

Government in Sci Fi and Fantasy

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Today’s topic comes from QSF member Jerry Lewandowski: “forms of government as portrayed in sci-fi/fantasy and how it reflects reality (or predicts accurately).” There are many forms of government, but the big ones seem to be Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Facism, and Monarchy – did I miss any? My favorite example of sci fi reflecting the current governmental scene has to be Piers Anthony’s Bio of a pace Tyrant, where he projects modern Earth onto the Solar System, with Jupiter playing the part of the US. Typically, Fantasy stories (at least High Fantasy) typically seem to involve Monarchies, or sometimes a … Read more

Stranger in a Strange Land

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Today’s topic is courtesy of Belinda McBride: “Stranger in a Strange Land: How to adapt and assimilate when visiting an alien culture whose manners and morals might seem heinous.” This one could be fun. It’s hard to write a truly alien culture – I’ve seen it done a few times, notably by Robert L. Forward in Dragon’s Egg and Niven’s The Mote in God’s Eye. We’re so tied into our own culture – it’s hard to both loose the constraints of what we know and make the result relatable to the reader. So my questions today: How do you do … Read more

How Do You Like Your Fantasy?

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Today’s topic is from Tam Ames: “What exactly do you consider fantasy? What does it mean to you? How broad, how narrow?” It’s a good question. for me, “Fantasy” has always been defined by the “Lord of the Rings” – which I started reading in second grade. Others have built upon this in my world, including most notably Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” and Terry Brooks’ “Shannara” series. But over time, my understanding of what constitutes “Fantasy” has broadened to include urban fantasy, fantasy/sci fi hybrids, magical realism, and others. So my questions today: What does “Fantasy” mean to … Read more