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Sci Fi

Writing Electronically

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Pencils

Yes, I’m back, after a five-day hiatus to move to our new digs with Mark, my hubby. Angel did a bang-up job with the discussion topics these last five days, and so she’s graciously agreed to continue the tradition with a new Angel Discussion every Friday. WooHoo! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, today’s topic comes from QSFer Anastasia Vitsky: “How has the use of electronic methods for writing changed the trends in sci fi?” I’d expand this to include cloud technology and the ability to write on the fly with your smart phone or tablet. I’m updating a story that … Read more

“Bone Rider” by J. Fally

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Genre: MM Urban Science Fiction Length: Novel   WHEN THE main characters in a novel are a cowboy, a Russian, and an alien, you know it’s going to be awesome. McClane is a highly sophisticated piece of alien bionic technology, called “bone riders”, and is self aware. In order to save himself from what he feels will be his destruction, he crash lands his spaceship on Earth, and invades a truck driver’s body to stay safe. Riley Cooper is on the run from his mob boyfriend–ex boyfriend–and he really didn’t need another complication in his life. But McClane shows up … Read more

Generational Tech

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Some of us are old enough to remember a time before computers. Some of us are even old enough to recall a time before dishwashers were the norm. What I’m getting at here is how technology becomes a part of the fabric of life and how we react to it when it’s not. My mother resisted getting a dryer for the house for a long time. Why would we need such a thing? We had a laundry line. Now it’s normal for everyone to have them, either in the domicile or the apartment’s laundry room or at the laundromat. They’re … Read more

Tropes We Love

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The word trope often sends unpleasant shivers down the backs of speculative fiction fans. We think of overused themes, tired plots, and situations that have been beaten to death with an Andromedan shock club and then beaten some more. But really, a trope is simply a recurring theme or device when we talk about stories, so all themes when we break them down into their component parts are tropes. Science Fiction and Fantasy are full of them and fans will be able to yell out dozens of examples if you name one. We even have our favorites if we stop … Read more

License to Explore

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Soylent Green

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Anastasia Vitsky: “I love the challenge of creating a world that is like but unlike the one I live in, and in some ways writing a “”fake”” world lets me be more brutally honest about the world I do live in. Right now, through the lens of this made-up world, I’m exploring topics I would never dare touch in a realistic contemporary romance, such as child slavery and child prostitution. And yet, I’m still writing a romance. What does sci fi allow you to do as a writer that you couldn’t do in realistic fiction?” … Read more

How Environments Shape Society

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Cold Gay

Today’s topic comes from QSFer and Admin Angel Martinez: “How environment shapes your societies (atmosphere, ecosystem, etc)”. So let me elaborate a little. Is British Society a bit more polite than many others because of the colder climes (hey, that works for Canada too)? Do societies in warmer climes with more resources have the freedom to be more open, generally? Does the fight for resources bring out the worst in cultures, fostering discrimination? Would a new world where every birth counts to raise the population work against the expression of homosexuality? And how can we use these forces to write … Read more

Homophobia in Alternate Worlds

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Jordan Marshall: “Including homophobia/heterosexism in our alternate worlds. Does excluding homophobia/heterosexism help us create better realities or do we erase the very real struggles queer people face.” Let’s face it – most of us want to see a future free of today’s homophobia. But is there a place in future societies for an exploration of discrimination against the LGBTI community? How can we use a future society to explore these issues in unique ways?

Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Time Slip Girl, By Elizabeth Andre

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The Time Slip Girl large

QSFer Elizabeth Andre shares her cover reveal of a new FF Sci Fi book excliusively with Queer Sci Fi: The Time Slip Girl, an interracial lesbian time travel novel published by Tulabella Ruby Press will be available for pre-order on April 19 and for sale on May 19. What if the woman you loved was more than a century away? Dara, a Chicago lesbian, is visiting London when she opens a door in an Edwardian house and slips into Edwardian England. Agnes, a beautiful London shop girl, takes in the bewildered 21st century American, but, as Dara begins to accept … Read more

Privacy in Telepathic Societies

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Telepathy

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Kethric Wilcox: The issue of privacy in telepathic societies, do you prefer the open invasion style of Star Trek’s Betazoid style telepaths or the regimented only with a contract and permission style of Babylon 5’s PsiCorps style or is their a happy middle ground between the two? Oooh, I like this one. My husband Mark and I aren’t telepathic, but we are together 99% of the time (by virtue of working together at home on our own business). And as such, there’s not a lot of privacy, but it works for us. But imagine if … Read more

Book Review: Saturn in Retrograde, by Jamie Fessenden

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Saturn in Retrograde

Okay, so I’m slowly working my way through my reading list of LGBT themed speculative fiction. I have read hundreds and hundreds of mainstream fantasy and sci fi books, but I’m now giving myself a crash course (well, more of a slow motion crash, given the limited amount of reading time I have these days) in gay sci fi and fantasy. So I asked Jamie Fessenden which book of his I should read, and he turned me on to Saturn in Retrograde. I really liked this book, although I wasn’t sure going in if it fell more on the sci … Read more