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Genres

Elves and Star Cruisers

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OK, so every morning, I sit down and figure out what I’m going to write about here. I try to do a bit of a round-robin – a post on sci fi, one about fantasy, and then one on paranormal… and then something about the writing process more generally. Today is Fantasy day. And a couple things have come together for me this morning to suggest a topic. Fantasy intruding into the sci fi world. I’m not talking about other worlds that blend a pastoral setting with a sci fi origin. I’m going a little more hard-core – I’m talking … Read more

Paying Our Debts

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The announcement (finally) of the long-awaited Apple Watch, and the related announcement of Apple’s new payment system got me wondering – how will we handle money in the future? If you’ve never seen the movie “In Time”, go rent it now. It’s a fascinating look at a future payment system, in which time really is money. People have a counter on their wrists, and get paid in time. And when your time runs out, you die. Many people are, literally, living from day to day in low-end jobs. I’m not saying we’re actually edging toward that kind of future, but … Read more

Shifting Away from Shifters

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Ever since Twilight became a thing, shifters and been all the rage in the paranormal genre. Sure, we’ve seen attempts by zombies, Frankenstein, and even a return of the vampires to dethrone shifters, but they still seem to rule the roost. But every dynasty must eventually fall. So what’s the next great paranormal craze? At one point, vampires held sway over the popular imagination, with icons like Lestat, Dracula, Count Chocula, and Elvira in the national limelight. And some shows have tried to blend the cast of characters – even Twilight had both vampires and werewolves. Being Human had a … Read more

How Magic Conquered Popular Culture

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Editor’s Note: After yesterday’s discussion on how we can use Fantasy to explore our own community and issues, this article from Lev Grossman at Time seemed particularly apropos: ———— hen I was a kid, in the 1980s, fantasy was not entirely OK. It had, let us say, some unpleasant associations. It was fringey and subcultural and uncool. In my suburban Massachusetts junior high, to be a fantasy fan was not to be a good, contented hobbit, working his sunny garden and smoking his fragrant pipeweed. It was to be Gollum, slimy and gross and hidden away, riddling in the dark. … Read more

The Love Lives of Intergalactic Queers

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In the Doctor Who season premiere episode ‘Deep Breath’ nearly a million Australian ABC viewers via BBC simulcast, repeat evening viewing and iView, were treated to an intimate lesbian kiss between Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart), that created quite a stir based on its primetime “family viewing” time slot. Ok, they may have been “sharing oxygen” to avoid detection by cybernetic sword-wielding breath detectors, and one may have been a reptile and therefore not human, and despite being married they may live out their roles as master and servant to be seen as socially acceptable, but … Read more

Rewriting Our Own Fantastic Histories

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Fantasy novels, especially High Fantasy like Tad Williams “The Dragonbone Chair”, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, Terry Brooks’ “Shanara” or Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” have a special place in my heart. Not so much “The Game of Thrones”. Not because it’s not well done. It is. It’s amazing, and well plotted. But damn, it’s so dark and violent. And shaded. I tend to be a bit of a round-robin reader, bouncing back and forth between science fiction and fantasy. I love science fiction for its speculation about what might be coming. But more and more, those … Read more

Homoerotic Covers from the Golden Age of Science Fiction

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Christopher Harrity at The Advocate shares some of them with us: When I was a kid, my stepfather amassed an amazing collection of science fiction magazines. He had so many that he had his room lined in bookcases to hold them all. The covers seemed to be sending me messages, hot gay messages. Most of these covers were in my stepfather’s collection. See all the Covers Here

Announcement: No Fae is An Island, by Angel Martinez

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Just got this notice from MLR Press. So exciting: Diego comes home to a world that refused to stand still in his absence—there’s a vampire on Tearmann Island’s security force, a curious selkie has followed him home, and so much to do to make the world a safer place for magic, but Diego’s no longer sure he has the right to interfere. Three years ago, Danu banished Diego for a time from the human world. Three years and three days doesn’t seem that long to be away from home but living among the wild /fae /can change a man and … Read more

Will Handwriting Be Written Off?

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When I was in elementary school, we learned both block writing and cursive. I hated cursive. Some people are able to write in cursive and create beautiful handwriting. Mine always looked scrunched up and messy. I have to say, I haven’t used cursive sense my high school days. Even when I write a letter, well, a birthday card, I use block letters. Nevertheless, I’ve been sad to see a number of articles saying schools are no longer teaching cursive. It has something to do with computers making hand-written communication obsolete, and the fact that people just don’t use it anymore, … Read more

New YA Sci Fi Novel Features Gay Character

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IN THE SEA of female-centric young adult novels filling bookstores around the world, Proxy definitely stands out. Written by American author Alex London, Proxy is a sci-fi novel featuring two lead male characters — and one of them happens to be gay. The book narrates the friendship that is formed between Knox, a “patron” who gets everything he wants and his “proxy,” Syd, who takes all the consequences and punishments of his actions. “I did not want to write a ‘gay’ book, or even a book about that relationship. It was just a fact of life. I wanted to write … Read more