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Sci Fi

Hormones and Misspent Youth

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QSFer John Allenson provided today’s topic of the day: “If you want to see what happens when a male is driven insane by an onslaught of hormones observe any teenage boy. Males hit their hormonal peak at age 17 while the part of the brain that controls impulse doesn’t finish developing until the early twenties. Any of the Transmen that I know will talk about how the first few injections of Vitamin T (testosterone) gives them roid rage.” Peter Hamilton explored this a bit in his sci fi book Misspent Youth – where the first man to undergo a rejuvenation … Read more

Sci Fi Tropes

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Angel Martine: “From a reader perspective – what bugs you most in your favorite genre?” Let’s tackle this in the sci fi genre. We all hacve things that, when we read them, just drive us up the wall. For sci fi, one of mine is when writers blithely talk about characters going from galaxy to galaxy. As if one galaxy wasn’t big enough? As if the trip between intergalactic gulfs was like a walk across the street? So what are your pet peeves with sci fi stories? The tropes authors often use, or outright mistakes … Read more

Is LGBT Fiction Inherently Different?

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Hey all, Bit of a philosophical question today. Most of the folks here read or write (or both) a lot of LGBT fiction – from MM romance to transgender urban fantasy. It got me thinking/ I know there are some obvious differences between these works and mainstream fiction – ie: the protagonists are LGBT. But does it go deeper than that? For instance – if we took a seminal work of mainstream fantasy, like The Wheel of Time – and changed all of Rand’s women to men, would it suddenly be a “gay fantasy” work? And if not, why not? … Read more

Amazing New Travel Posters From Nasa

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Those of you into collectible travel items and/or space travel will probably enjoy these stunning posters NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory created in honor of a few of the exoplanets they’ve discovered with the Kepler space telescope. An exoplanet, of course, is a planet orbiting a star other than our own. NASA’s description of the destination featured in the image at the top of this post: Experience the Gravity of a Super Earth Twice as big in volume as the Earth, HD 40307g straddles the line between “Super-Earth” and “mini-Neptune” and scientists aren’t sure if it has a rocky surface or … Read more

Announcement: Arrival, by Michelle Robbins

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Michelle Robins at Amber Quill Press has a new MM sci fi romance out, part of her Urilqii series: Life for Liam Sinclair used to be easy. Raves, work, sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat. Yet all of that changed with the arrival of the Urilqii…space aliens, technically, although they looked like everybody else. But if that wasn’t freaky enough, they arrived on Earth to thwart a global usurpation by beings they called The Targolt. Climate change, long-denied, was proof of the invasion. Although at first Liam was as skeptical as everyone else, he couldn’t deny one fantastic truth—those space-faring alien dudes … Read more

Zzzzzzzzzz….

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OK, folks, sorry I’m a little late this morning. I slept in until 7:30 (my usual wake-up time is 5:30-6) and it felt GLORIOUS! Which inspired the topic for the day. What’s the future of sleep? More specifically, what new ways might we find to alleviate sleep problems? Could we find a way to get rid of sleep altogether, opening up more productive hours in the day (in either the good sense or the dark Big Brother you gotta work sense)? What other future incarnations might sleep take?

Announcement: Hiding in Plain Sight, by Kathryn Sullivan

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Amber Quill Press has a free sci fi short available from Kathryn Sullivan. Not sure this one is LGBT, but it’s a free read and looks interesting. :) A mysterious box containing a blue crystal is the only warning to the alien invasion. Can Ceily and her group of fellow telepaths protect Earth from the otherworldly slavers? Excerpt …Recovering, she delved again. The stone was undeniably natural, yet her mind fitted into a linkage with its structure that could be more powerful than that with Derrel’s prototype psi-amplifier. Who would send this? Why? I’d love to see the expression on … Read more

Ten Years From Today

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I’m writing a near-future story – one of several I’ve been working on. And it got me thinking. Ten years ago, many of the tech toys we take for granted – the iPhone, iPad/tablets, Twitter, and many more didn’t even exist. And Facebook was a small website for connecting students on college campuses. So I’m asking everyone to dust off their crystal balls and answer this question: What are three transformative technologies or gadgets we will take for granted in 2025 that either don’t exist yet or are in their infancies today?

Announcement: London Steam, by Lynn Townsend

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QSFer Lynn Townsend has a new Steampunk book out (note – contains two m/m stories and two m/m/f stories): In a reimagined 1890’s London, where steam-driven airships rule the skies and monsters roam the streets, the Galileo Observatory’s Club for Gentlemen welcomes all — gwr, shape-changers, vampires, and lords. A high-stakes game leads more than a few men astray. Poindexter Fitzhughes, renowned hero and scientist, learns just how much trouble a full-blooded gwr can be when he attempts to cure his lover, Lord Seth Maitland, of the disease. But when their backs are against the wall, the two must learn … Read more