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Trends

Will Wearable Tech Take Off?

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Apple Watch

The Android smart watch’s time may not yet have come: Despite heavy promotion of Android Wear, Google’s hardware partners, including LG Electronics, Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics, only shipped 720,000 of the devices last year. With the arrival of products such as Motorola’s hotly anticipated Moto 360, the smartwatch market was expected to take off. But the data from market research company Canalys shows that consumers are still far from convinced that they need buy one. “Android Wear will need to improve significantly in the future, and we believe it will do so,” said Daniel Matte, analyst at Canalys. Full … Read more

What Happens To Our eBooks When We Die?

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Just ran across an interesting story about Facebook and what happens to your account when you die: As of Thursday, there will be three basic options: 1) You can do nothing, in which case the current rules apply and your account can be memorialized by anyone after your death, providing that the company gets adequate proof of your death. 2) You can ask Facebook to delete your account after you die. 3) You can designate someone — called your legacy contact — to manage your account. Once Facebook is notified of your death, your timeline will also change to let … Read more

How Will Marriage Equality Change Everything?

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As we approach the legalization of marriage equality on Tuesday in Florida, the third largest state in the US, I’m pulling out my crystal ball to look into the future. Mark and I have been married now for 6 years, and together for almost 23. Marriage really has changed things for us – we feel different together. People treat us differently. When I introduce him as my husband, hardly anyone seems to give it a second thought. I have spent so much energy in the last seven years pushing for LGBT rights and marriage equality. Many in the LGBT community … Read more

What’s Next for the Paranormal?

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Hey all, Given that we’re approaching the end of the year, I thought it would be fun to do a few topics on emerging trends for 2015. Since we haven’t done a paranormal topic in a few days, I’d like you to get out your crystal balls (or magic mirrors or scrying ponds) and tell us what you think will be hot in 2015 and 2016 in paranormal circles. Will Zombies continue their shuffle to world domination? Will Vampires swoop in for another kill? Will werewolves shift the conversation back to themselves? Ar will a new paranormal threat manifest in … Read more

Dismantling the Closet Door

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Today’s topic comes from one of our QSFers, but I have to apologize – I misplaced the name of the person who submitted this one – if you wanna come forward, I’ll happily give you credit. Nevertheless, it’s a great topic: “Are we past telling ‘coming-out’ stories? Are we past ‘being LGBT makes you a pariah’ stories? Do we need new sources of dramatic tension?” LGBT stories in general have gone through some historic periods. In the fifties and early sixties, they were all about how terrible it was to be gay – the repercussions in society once you were … Read more

Name Your Topic Day

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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

The Love Lives of Intergalactic Queers

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In the Doctor Who season premiere episode ‘Deep Breath’ nearly a million Australian ABC viewers via BBC simulcast, repeat evening viewing and iView, were treated to an intimate lesbian kiss between Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart), that created quite a stir based on its primetime “family viewing” time slot. Ok, they may have been “sharing oxygen” to avoid detection by cybernetic sword-wielding breath detectors, and one may have been a reptile and therefore not human, and despite being married they may live out their roles as master and servant to be seen as socially acceptable, but … Read more

Cheating Death

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We’re going to a funeral today. It’s for one of Mark’s uncles – not someone I knew well. But it’s the latest in a string of funerals over the last several years. I’m reaching that age, I guess, where many of my friends and family members are passing on. In the last two years for the two of us, that’s included a grandmother, a mother, a dear friend, an uncle, a step mother, and several others. It’s made me reflect on family and life and death. And in the sci fi context, it’s made me think about immortality. I always … Read more

The Shifter Revolution

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The Twilight series, love it or hate it, served to help bring shifter romance into the mainstream – it’s been fun to watch former “monsters” become romantic bad boys, from the likes of “True Blood” and “Twilight” to the lately emerging subgenre of Zombie romance, epitomized by last year’s film “Warm Bodies”. There was even an attempt to turn Frankenstein into an action hero, with Aaron Eckhart cast in the lead in “I, Frankenstein.” A quick run through the shifter romance page at Goodreads turns up horse shifters, lion shifters, bear shifters, dragon shifters and many more. If you had … Read more