Readers
For Readers: Why Do We Like Dystopian Fic?
Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Richard Wood: TOPIC Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat Dystopian fiction has been around forever, but in recent years, it seems to have gained a foothold in the popular culture – witness The Hunger Games and other movies of the same ilk that have spring from YA book series. Some authors seem to have a penchant for destroying planets and cultures. Maybe it’s ISIS, or the Great Recession, or just a sense that things … Read more
For Readers: Science vs. Pseudoscience
Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Jim Comer: The relationship between quiltbag folk and science. Some of us love science but don’t know much about it. Some post pseudoscince and use it in stories. Some know how ‘science’ classified us as mistakes or monsters in the past. Some, like the mpreg-nation, dream of strange science in the future. So we love science?? Fear it?? Practice it???? I’ll refine this a bit. There’s a lot of pseudoscience out there in sci fi, things that could likely never happen given our current understanding of how the world works. OTOH, many writers go … Read more
For Readers: What Are You Reading?
Some of my favorite books came as recommendations from other readers. Especially when I find someone who has the same tastes that I do. So let’s hear it – what are y’all reading right now in the LGBT speculative fiction arena? And what’s on your TBR stack? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat
For Readers: Refill the Reader Topics Bucket
Hey all, From time to time, we actually use up all the topics y’all have sent in. It’s sad, but it happens. We’re at that point once again for our reader chats, so this is your opportunity – throw out the things you would like to see discussed by readers here at QSF. We’d especially like to see more Fantasy and Paranormal topics, and some more things dealing with the letters LBTQI. But whatever you wanna talk about, we wanna hear it. You can leave your ideas on the Facebook post or add them to the blog post comments. :) … Read more
For Readers & Writers: Rainbow Con Panels for 2017
Hi all, Something really cool has happened. The organizers of Rainbow Con have asked for our input for the 2017 conference. The theme is Step Into Tomorrow: it’s a Sci Fi/Fantasy theme (which we may or may not have had something to do with, as RC 2015 was kinda stacked with QSF authors). This is our chance to shape the topics we want to talk about next year. From Kris Piet: The more ideas the merrier, but there are no guarantees. We’re looking for topics and take everyone’s suggestions seriously, but not every topic will be chosen just because it’s … Read more
For Readers: Strange Sex
Sex in Queer Sci Fi land can get… interesting. From alien appendages (tentacles, anyone?) to magical potions, from shifter sex to elf kink, LGBTIQ speculative fiction writers have explored the gamut when it comes to sexuality. One of my favorites so far is in an upcoming book by Angel Martinez and Bellora Quin. I can’t say too much about it (hello, spoilers), so let’s just say it involves the construction of a special table to, um, facilitate things. What’s the strangest speculative fiction love scene or sex scene you’ve ever read? And did you like it? Writers: This is a … Read more
For Readers: Ripped From the Headlines
Things are happening every day on the modern world. New worlds are being discovered or inferred (sorry, Pluto!), science is discovering cures for some things and new threats from others, and social movements are remaking societies. So our question for today: What current science or social story would you like to read a sci fi extrapolation of? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat
For Readers: Now or Later?
Sci fi can take many forms. Some of it is set in the present or near future – the movie “Her” was a great example of this. Watching the film, it was easy to believe the events portrayed could take place in the next few years. Some go a little farther out. The Martian is a good example of this – we’re in the future, but still recognizably our future. And still others go much farther afield, with only a tenuous connection (or none at all) to the world we know. Do you prefer reading LGBTIQ sci fi that is … Read more
For Readers: Where Do You Read?
We all have our own favorite places to cozy up with a good book (or our kindle, or iPad, or whatever you like to read on) For some of us, it’s outside. Others prefer a cozy bed, or a warm spot by the fire on a rainy winter evening. So where do you read? In bed? In the line at the Post office? Under your favorite tree? Wherever you can? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat