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Discussion

Writing vs. Marketing

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writing and marketing

This one’s for our writers. So you’ve slaved away at your computer through sunny days and dark nights. You’ve completed your opus magnum – or at least another short story, and you’ve sent it out into the world. A publisher picked it up, and it’s gonna be on the shelves next month. Now what? As the many writers in this group know, it’s not enough just to write a good story – you also have to sell yourself, something that many of us introverted writers are inherently uncomfortable with. So here are my questions today. How much time do you … Read more

Men, Erotica, and Porn

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Best Gay Erotica

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Beth Brock: Beth Brock Popular belief (and evidence) suggests that men are stimulated visually, with physical sexual images of intercourse and/or genitalia. This can help explain why a lot more men than women watch porn. Around 20% of romance/erotica readers are men, which also supports the hypothesis that men prefer a visual stimulus. So my question is, why do men read erotica/romance? Why do they write it? Are they different than those other men who only watch porn, or do they watch porn too? Is there any correlation with the fact that, of the percentage … Read more

Angel’s Bits: Podcasting with Special Guest Janet Gershen-Siegel

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For today’s edition of Angel’s Bits, we have a special guest, Janet Gershen-Siegel, to talk to us about: Podcasting It’s a means of getting to a wider audience. It’s a different medium from what you might be used to. And it offers practice and the opportunity to polish some skills that you, the writer, might not have realized you needed, such as thinking on your feet and being an interview subject. Getting Started What do you need for podcasting? This image is a pretty good summary of what you need – The good news is that you have most of … Read more

What’s Your Favorite Book, Author or Series in LGBT Speculative Fiction?

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gay sci fi

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Tammy Jenkins: Who is your favorite MM Sci Fi / Fantasy / Paranormal author or series, and why? What would you like to see more of from them? Some ground rules: It can’t be you or your own book/series OK, well, really that’s about it. :P Let’s have some fun! In this chat, it’s fine to link to a buy page for the book. :)

Alternative Sexual Norms in Speculative Fiction

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Alternative Sexual Norms

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Michael Barnette: In my fantasy setting – Pearls Like Rain over with Torquere is the only one out right now in this world – it’s considered abnormal to be totally gay or straight. Almost everyone in the setting, excepting in two of the more isolated cultures, is bisexual. So this would make for a great topic. Alternate sexual norms. I like this one – it’s not just “what if everyone were gay”. How would a society function if the man-woman thing weren’t the norm? Maybe it’s normal for people to wait until 30 to have … Read more

Free Work vs. Paid Work

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Pencils

Today’s topic is for our authors out there. There are so many places to submit your work these days, from traditional publishers to journals (like the MCB Quarterly) to niche presses. Some pay very well. Some pay a little. And some pay nothing at all. And with sites like Amazon, Smashwords, etc, you can also give your work away yourself for free (forever, or for a period of time). But at some point, you gotta make some money to pay for your crack… I mean, writing addiction. So where do you come down on free work vs. paid work? Have … Read more

Chariots of the ….Huh?

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Chariot of the Gods

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Jim Comer: “Science fiction is inherently a literature of science, and bards of science is among the more printable things that SF authors have been called. Working scientists such as Dr Robert Forward, Isaac Asimov and Catherine Asaro have written famous SF tales, but alongside the solid work of such people, there is the strange legacy of people such as Norman Dean, Richard Shaver and Erich von Daniken, makers and tale-tellers of so-called fringe science. “When a friend brought up the infamous Ica Stones recently, I was thinking about the enormous amount of fringe science … Read more

Humanoid Aliens

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aliens

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Michael Barnette: “Aliens that are ‘just like us, maybe with cosmetic differences like skin color, or other minor differences. Take away the cosmetic appearance change and otherwise they’re just humans. Do you write aliens this way and why? Do you dislike this type of ‘alien’ and why?” Coincidentally, Theo Fenraven posted this article on the FB page a couple days back: http://www.veronicasicoe.com/blog/2015/04/humanoid-aliens-how-much-likeness-is-plausible/ Veronica breaks it down much better than I ever could. This is something that always bothered me about Star Trek – how is it that 90% of the Star Trek aliens were bipedal … Read more

Discussion: Wearable Tech

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Apple Watch

With the Apple Watch about to arrive on wrists everywhere, I thought it would be fun to take a day to talk about wearable tech. We’re only a few years in from the introduction of the smart phone, and things are changing yet again. What’s coming next, and where do we go from here? Will tech soon go from wearable to embeddable? What would it look like? What will it do? What are the upsides and downsides of our continuing integration with the tech world as individuals, a species, and in society?

How Aliens and Elves Get it On

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Alien Sex

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette: “Alien or fantasy sex/gender dynamics. Not just the concept itself, but how it affects biology, plot, and so forth. This includes nonstandard pronoun sets, which are tricky yet rewarding to handle.” OK, so let’s break this down a little. On the sci fi side, you could create a whole new alien species that reproduces in a vastly different way than humans. Maybe they lay eggs. Or maybe reproduction requires three sexes. Or licking. With a second tongue. On the fantasy side, magic might be involved, or inter-species relationships (dwarves and elves, anyone?). And … Read more