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Speculative Ficiton

TV: Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams is Here!

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Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams

“From the mind of the prolific sci-fi author, comes the new anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams. With 10 standalone episodes and a sweeping all-star cast, each epic story will explore fantasy, humanity, and a future we’ve only begun to imagine.” Stop. You had me at Buscemi. This looks particularly good based on the cast alone and it starts today! Not sure how I missed this but I’m glad I saw it in time. By Dave Post – Full Story at Worlds Without End

Boogieman in Lavender: Back to 1962

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Jeff Baker

                                                                            They Also Serve  First, a nod to the fine blog “Galactic Journey,” http://galacticjourney.org/ which posts entries on sci-fi and pop culture from 55 years ago, and is where I first heard of the story in the September 1962 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. A little bit of our literary history. The September 1962 issue included the story “They Also … Read more

FOR READERS: Not All Good Speculative Fiction is in Books

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Curtain - Pixabay

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Kari Trenten: Any science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction in something other than book form that you’re fond 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

Out of the Past – LGBTQ Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in the 1980s

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The Northern Girl

The 1970s, famed as an era of free love, political protests and hallucinogen-fueled utopias, gave way to the era of punk and New Wave, AIDS, and the politics of Reagan and Thatcher in the more conservative 1980s. And science fiction, fantasy and horror followed suit, with hard-edged military science fiction, dystopian visions, anti-hero sword and sorcery, vampires and of course, cyberpunk. None of these, on the face of it, seemed any more LGBT-friendly than the sfnal works of the previous decade, yet the number of portrayals of LGBT characters over the course of the decade more than quadrupled. This was … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: Renewal, QSF’s Flash Fiction Anthology

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QSF Renewal-Print

QSF has a new book out, the latest in our series of flash fiction anthologies: Re.new.al (noun) 1) Resuming an activity after an interruption, or 2) Extending a contract, subscription or license, or 3) Replacing or repairing something that is worn out, run-down, or broken, or 4) Rebirth after death. Four definitions to spark inspiration, a limitless number of stories to be conceived. Only 110 made the cut. Thrilling to hopeful, Renewal features 300-word speculative fiction ficlets about sexual and gender minorities to entice readers. Welcome to Renewal. Mischief Corner Books | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: Wilde Stories Anthology

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Wilde Stories 2017

QSFer Nathan Burgoine has a story in a new gay speculative fiction anthology: A man named Turing visits a museum to see its rarest automata; during the Plague Years, three artists seeking to express a voice for their friends lost to AIDS unwittingly create life; a far-future restaurant offers patrons questionable cuisine; an immortal assassin may be one step closer to a paranoid king, despite his unspeakable precautions; the very existence of a mysterious and ancient golden android challenges a clergyman’s faith… Wilde Stories showcases the previous year’s best offerings in gay short fantasy, science-fiction, and horror. This edition includes … Read more

Out of the Past – LGBTQ Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in the 1970s

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Hello! Welcome to the second installment of my series of columns on the history of LGBTQ science fiction, fantasy and horror. As I noted in my previous post, things had begun to improve slightly for SF/F/H readers looking for more positive portrayals of LGBT characters and complex perspectives on sexuality and gender in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. That trend accelerated after the events of June of 1969 when the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The raid triggered several days of rioting by bar patrons and other LGBT people. These … Read more

Boogieman In Lavender Review: Heiresses of Russ

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Jeff Baker

The story was that some people had learned to read again.—-line from “The Tip of the Tongue” by Felicia Davin. That most conventional of female archetypes, the bride, figures in several of the unconventional stories in “Heiresses of Russ,” the 2016 edition of the best Lesbian speculative fiction of the year, edited by A. M. Dellamonica and Steve Berman and published by Lethe Press. Leading off is the first of several award nominees, (Nebula nominee, shortlisted for the Hugo and Tiptree awards) “Grandmother-Nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds,” by Rose Lemberg. A story of gender fluidity, magic and deepnames where men and … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: A Rollerblade Day, by Eric Alan Westfall

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A Rollerblade Day

QSFer Eric Alan Westfall has a new MM poetry book out that includes some spec fic poems: ’m not sure what to say to entice you into buying a collection of mostly gay-themed poems. Some are from my own life, some are not. Some will hopefully give you a joyful smile, and an “Ah, yes.” Others I hope will have a different effect on your emotions. There are some humorous ones (“quantumchromodynamics”—which is, by the way, a real word), some are happy, some are not, some are fantasies (“the dragon painting,” “dining with the Anhkang king”), and some deal with … Read more

Out of the Past – LGBTQ Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Before 1970

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Welcome! Out of the Past will be a regular column discussing the history of LGBTQ+ science fiction, fantasy and horror literature from the earliest years of the genre to the more recent present (many thanks to Queer Sci-Fi for hosting me and to Scott for suggesting it). While portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) characters didn’t become relatively common in science fiction, fantasy or horror until after the early successes of the Gay Liberation Movement in the 1970s, that didn’t mean that there was “no there there, ” to borrow a phrase from Gertrude Stein. Of course, most … Read more