With billions and billions of stars in our universe and up to 400 billion in our Milky Way Galaxy alone, you’d think we’d have already seen signs of other life on at least one of the other habitable planets that are sure to be spread throughout the cosmos. So where are all the aliens? This colorfully animated video has a few theories. See the full story at Towleroad.com
Welcome to ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB discussion page for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post, so I can also share it over to our FB page (as opposed to this discussion group). –If you want, send me your book announcement info at … Read more
This one’s for our writers. So you’ve slaved away at your computer through sunny days and dark nights. You’ve completed your opus magnum – or at least another short story, and you’ve sent it out into the world. A publisher picked it up, and it’s gonna be on the shelves next month. Now what? As the many writers in this group know, it’s not enough just to write a good story – you also have to sell yourself, something that many of us introverted writers are inherently uncomfortable with. So here are my questions today. How much time do you … Read more
For today’s edition of Angel’s Bits, we have a special guest, Janet Gershen-Siegel, to talk to us about: Podcasting It’s a means of getting to a wider audience. It’s a different medium from what you might be used to. And it offers practice and the opportunity to polish some skills that you, the writer, might not have realized you needed, such as thinking on your feet and being an interview subject. Getting Started What do you need for podcasting? This image is a pretty good summary of what you need – The good news is that you have most of … Read more
Hi all, We have some big news today. We’re launching the second annual flash fiction contest on QueerSciFi.com. Last year’s contest was a great success, with some fantastic entries and a great winning story. This year promises to be even better, and we’re adding a second contest as well. Flash Fiction Contest We are partnering with Mischief Corner Books to create an eBook with all the entries that we will then sell on the site and at Rainbow Con to help fund the growth of the QueerSciFi empire. :) There will be cash prizes for the top three entries, along with … Read more
Today’s topic comes from QSFer Michael Barnette: In my fantasy setting – Pearls Like Rain over with Torquere is the only one out right now in this world – it’s considered abnormal to be totally gay or straight. Almost everyone in the setting, excepting in two of the more isolated cultures, is bisexual. So this would make for a great topic. Alternate sexual norms. I like this one – it’s not just “what if everyone were gay”. How would a society function if the man-woman thing weren’t the norm? Maybe it’s normal for people to wait until 30 to have … Read more
Welcome to ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB discussion page for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post, so I can also share it over to our FB page (as opposed to this discussion group). –If you want, send me your book announcement info at … Read more
Someone’s using too many instagram filters… NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is setting up to make an historic fly-by of Pluto on July 14. NASA today released this first-ever color photo from the probe of Pluto with its largest moon Charon. Writes NASA: This image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was taken by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on April 9 and downlinked to Earth the following day. It is the first color image ever made of the Pluto system by a spacecraft on approach. The image is a preliminary reconstruction, which will be refined … Read more
Today’s topic is for our authors out there. There are so many places to submit your work these days, from traditional publishers to journals (like the MCB Quarterly) to niche presses. Some pay very well. Some pay a little. And some pay nothing at all. And with sites like Amazon, Smashwords, etc, you can also give your work away yourself for free (forever, or for a period of time). But at some point, you gotta make some money to pay for your crack… I mean, writing addiction. So where do you come down on free work vs. paid work? Have … Read more
There once was a Doctor Who spin-off that featured everyone’s favorite pansexual, Captain Jack Harkness. It fancied itself a more mature and adult show, where the characters all had alien technology at their fingertips. As part of a top-secret agency, they investigated bizarre deaths and other incidents. This is the basis of Torchwood. On May 21, 2005, viewers were introduced to a new Doctor Who character, one who deviated from the heteronormativity that had generally permeated the timeline. Captain Jack Harkness (played by John Barrowman) was a very openly bisexual character…or, more appropriately, omnisexual, as he has been shown to … Read more