Today’s topic is from QSFer Angel Martinez, just home from GRL: “Favorite new scientific/ medical advances you want to use in a story.” There are so many to choose from – 3-D printers, Lab-grown penises, the oPhone app to send smells across the internet.. how do you choose just one? So what recent scientific or medical stories caught your eye? And how would you build a story around one of them?
In A Brief History of Time Professor Stephen Hawking asks, “…if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?” Indeed, the more humanity learns about the universe in which we are just a very miniscule part, the less need we seem to have for a higher power. The theory of evolution cogently describes how we as a species came into being, and the Big Bang elegantly enumerates on how the universe itself came into existence. As our scientific understanding expands, … Read more
Prepare to have some sci fi plot bunnies released: NASA just announced a critical component of Launch America, the country’s highly anticipated next chapter in human spaceflight. The organization confirmed in a press conference today that Boeing and SpaceX will split the $6.8 billion “space taxi” contract, with $4.2 billion going to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX. Essentially, Boeing’s CST-100 Space Capsule and SpaceX’s Dragon will each send a test flight to the International Space Station to demonstrate their space taxi capabilities. Each team will fly to the ISS with a NASA crew member and cargo, show that they … Read more
I just saw the news (in EW, of all places) that there’s finally going to be a Dragonriders of Pern movie. I am thrilled, elated, and scared. This series is one of my most beloved in the sci fi realm – I started reading it in my early teens, and fell in love with it. My mom had this bookshelf in our third bedroom, next to where the dogs were crated at night. The shelves went up and up and up to the ceiling in the tiny home, and about in the middle were her two shelves of sci fi … Read more
Today’s subject comes courtesy of QSF member Theo Fenraven: “How is it male vamps can get erections when they are short of blood?” I’ll broaden this out a bit (pun intended). With many supernatural creatures, we have to suspend disbelief a bit. This is especially true of vampires – as Theo says, if they have no blood, how do they get it up for sex? Can femail vampires get pregnant? Can male vampires make a non vampire woman pregnant? And garlic? Seriously? So my question today – how do vampires get it on? And what other things do vampires do … Read more
Today’s topic is thanks to Erica Pike – “apocalyptic topics with or without zombies”. So here’s my take. Shifters seem to be all the rage, especially in MM paranormal romance. Zombies have had their moments lately in popular culture – see World War Z, Warm Bodies, and the Walking Dead. But there’s so much more potential in these rotting meat sacks. So my question today – how can we put a fresh spin on the whole zombie craze, either in romance or in paranormal or sci fi in general?
Hey all… Every day I come up with a fresh, new, exciting topic on writing, LGBT authors, sci fi, fantasy, or paranormal. Well, usually they are fresh and exciting. But sometimes they fall flat. Hey, whatcha gonna do? But today, I thought I’d throw things open – I’d like you to tell me the topic or topics you’d like to see us discuss over the coming weeks. This is partly because I’m a really altruistic democratic guy. But hey, it’s also a short morning, so while I’ve been planning to do this for awhile, today seems perfect for it. So … Read more
A new indy film, “Paternity”, looks at the possibility of a man becoming pregnant, something we’ve discussed at the QSF discussion group before: Check out this first look at the upcoming Indiegogo-funded film Paternity Leave starring Chris Salvatore and The Cove’s Charlie David that filps the whole idea of gay parenting on its head in a heartwarming and funny way. Here’s the film synopsis: Greg (Jacob York) finds out that he’s pregnant with his partner Ken’s (Charlie David) baby. Dumbstruck by the news, their relationship takes twists and turns through hardship and hilarity, while we’re left wondering if they’re going … Read more
Imagine a society, in the not too distant future, where sex is no longer the main method for reproduction. In the eyes of Stanford University law professor Hank Greely, director of the Stanford Center for Law Bioethics, that scenario will become a reality within this century. At his “End of Sex” event Wednesday, Greely compared the future of conception to the society in the science fiction movie “GATTACA.” Greely, often referred to as the godfather of the field between human genetics and biological sciences, foresees that the majority of births in developed countries will feature in-vitro fertilization and whole genome … Read more
OK, so it’s not actually gay, but who doesn’t want to see Channing Tatum in pretty much anything? Non-disclaimer disclaimer – no one has asked us to post this or paid us to do so. I just really wanna see this film: From the makers of The Matrix trilogy comes another futuristic science fiction film – Jupiter Ascending. Jupiter Ascending has Channing Tatum (Caine) and Mila Kunis (Jupiter Jones) as its lead stars. The film will follow the life of Jupiter Jones, an ordinary cleaning lady who always dream of the stars. She is always wondering what is in store … Read more