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Genres

Worldbuilding – Drawing Your World

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Over at WorldBuildingSchool.com this last week, they had a great post on drawing your own worlds: Being able to represent land on a map is a key skill required by any cartographer. So this tutorial will show you exactly how to draw land. Genesis 1:6 states “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” (NIV) Just as our real world requires dry land for land dwellers to live so too do our fantasy worlds. Though dry land is not something a fictional world must have, as films like Waterworld prove, however, for … Read more

Announcement: Fissures, by DJ Manly

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DJ Manly has a new paranormal book out with Amber Allure in the Spectrum Skies series: All hell is breaking loose–literally–as rogue vampires, believing humans and vampires should not dwell together, call on demons to help them in their deadly crusades. Just as Pascal and London prepare for a fissure to occur in Spectrum, London is taken by the vampire rebels, bitten, and tortured. Soon, Pascal presumes the man he loves is dead. But London rises again. Is he a vampire? Pascal isn’t sure, but one thing he does know–London is no longer his. But Pascal and London have even … Read more

Announcement: Winter’s Gift, by Sean Michael

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Sean Michael has a new fantasy book out from Torquere: Badly disfigured, Geoff lives alone in the woods with only his wolf as companion. It’s a solitary life, but one he is comfortable with. When he discovers a fairy with an injured wing at the beginning of winter, his whole ordered world is turned upside down. But will Mauve be horrified by his rescuer’s visage? Or can the fairy look beyond the scars and see into Geoff’s heart? Excerpt It was warm and dark and he couldn’t move. Something soft but heavy and confining was hold him down and Mauve … Read more

The Language of Fantasy

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Beth Brock (I know – she’s on a roll!): “In a fantasy world, how important is it to follow the rules of the history of Earth? Specifically language and social studies? Can you use French words in a fantasy world? How about German? Where is the limits of English? How can other languages help us bridge the scifi and fantasy language gaps?” Many of us have invented our own languages for Fantasy stories. But sometimes it makes more sense to use an existing language. I’ve borrowed from Gaelic for some of my Fantasy pieces, and … Read more

Announcement: Tracker, by Kethrick Wilcox

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QSFer Kethric Wilcox has a new paranormal book out: Once upon a time there was Beauty and there was the Beast. The spinners of tales would have you believe these two fell in love and lived happily ever after, the spinners lied. The Beast was a shifter and Beauty became a huntress and founded a long line of huntresses aided by the power of silver magic. Kieran Belle is a descendant of the House of Beauty and a tracker who longs to live a life free of killing shifters. Aided by his father he escapes to college in Little Rock, … Read more

Seeding Humanity

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Today’s topic is from Beth Brock: “Some scifi writers explain the similarities of humans to other alien races as “seeding”, as in an ancient race went through the universe and “seeded” the worlds with human-like DNA. How do you feel about that explanation that a lot of alien races are similar to humanity? How does that relate to LGBTQ studies?” I gotta say, this always bugged the hell outta me… why in the Star Trek Universe, for instance, most of the aliens are not only humanoid but could have sex and even produce viable offspring. It always struck me as … Read more

Announcement: Terrance, by DJ Manly

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Today’s announcement comes from MLR Press and DJ Manly: Terrance is happy with Alex, and for the first time, the voices in his head seem low and far away. Then they begin again, horrifying images fill his mind, as a small boy calls to him. No matter what, Terrance needs to follow that voice. But can he trust it? Is it really the voice of a small boy in trouble, or the voices from hell itself? Terrance’s communication with the dead leads him to some surprising discoveries. Excerpt “You look like hell,” Wes announced as Alex picked at the napkin … Read more

Exploring Moral Absolutes Through Sci Fi

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Jim Comer: “Heinlein is often misunderstood as an individualist. He once said, however, that “moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level”. Is this true in the societies that we create? What moral absolutes work in stories? Which ones do not?” Broadining this out a little, one of the main roles of sci fi has been to look at the morality of the culture. Fiction does this in general, but sci fi has a special function here, in that it can create an alternate culture/future/society that shines a light on the morals of our … Read more

A Near Miss…

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[Yesterday] morning, an enormous space rock missed Earth by a narrow margin of 745,000 miles, or about three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. With a diameter of 550 meters and a velocity of about 35,000 miles per hour, the asteroid, known as 2004 BL86, will be so bright in the evening sky that it will be visible through binoculars. Scientists don’t expect another object of this size to pass so closely to Earth until August 7, 2027. By Becky Ferreira – Full Story at Motherboard

Announcement: Shirewode, by J. Tullos Hennig

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QSFer and DSP author J. Tullos Hennig has a new book out in the Wode Series: The King of the Shire Wode. That is what they will call you… Home razed by Church edict, loved ones struck down by treachery, Rob is left for dead. Taken by the old druid master into the deeps, Rob survives to emerge as driven leader of a band of tight-knit outcasts, claiming the forest as their own and wielding the Horned Lord’s vengeance with silent, deadly arrows. Gamelyn has fled England, only to return after finding new identity and purpose–but no absolution–on Crusade. When … Read more